I actually have a really good investigator who walked me through making some disclosure determinations. For instance, there is someone from Russia who is very anti-American and pro-Putin. We’ve met in person once seven years ago, and while we do occasionally talk on Facebook, it’s always debating geopolitics.
He walked me through the logical process of determining that I did not need to list him. In fact, I got the sense that he felt several of my foreign contacts did not need to be listed. I was on the fence but erred on the side of caution.
A Dutch friend that I met in Moscow but now lives in the Netherlands for a major bank and I talk maybe once a year. But we had planned for him to come visit me in the States. COVID derailed that.
A similar situation exists. She’s never been to the States, and she’s Croatian. But when I met her she was in Moscow on a work visa working with the International Labor Organization (an organ of the U.N.) Today, she’s the country director for the U.N. in Benin, Africa. She and I actually met through an American friend in Moscow, who thought we’d get along because we were both career labor activists.
We still only talk quarterly, if that, and the bond of affection is friendship. I think there’s some debate over what ‘bonds of affection’ means. To me, it means romantic partner. But again, I erred on the side of caution.