In the summer of 2018, the US Department of Justice arrested Russian citizen Butina. Officially, she was charged with representing the interests of the Russian Federation in a foreign state, without having registration and at the same time being a "foreign agent". What exactly is the activist accused of and what is her fate today?
Who is Butina
A resident of Barnaul, at the age of 29, founded the Russian movement "The Right to Arms". The purpose of the organization is to achieve the spread of the right to carry short-barreled weapons on the territory of Russia. The girl herself first held her father's gun in her hands at the age of 10 and was very carried away by this topic. During her student days, when Maria studied at the Faculty of Mass Communication of Altai State University, she received a membership card of the Public Chamber of the Altai Territory. Immediately after graduation, she organized a network of retail outlets for the sale of furniture, a year later she created the Right to Arms, then she moved to the capital.
Having sold her business in the provinces, in the capital, Butina established an advertising agency with the proceeds.
Its main activity was still a public organization, which gained fame throughout the country, having absorbed similar companies. Additional activities - legal protection and lawmaking. Thus, the “Right to Arms” was the author of the project to introduce a detailed legislative interpretation of the word “self-defense”. The initiative has collected hundreds of thousands of signatures on the Internet, but the authorities rejected it.
A well-known "patron" of the legal organization is considered Alexander Torshin, who at that time held the post of deputy chairman of the Federation Council. Today he works in the same status at the Central Bank of Russia. The patron has repeatedly supported most of the activist's initiatives. The leader of the LDPR party, actor Ivan Okhlobystin, as well as Ilya Ponomarev, an ex-deputy of the State Duma, also have membership in a well-known society.
What the activist is accused of
The FBI published a conclusion on July 16 last year, in it, without specifying third-party names, Butina is described as the main assistant of a certain official from Russia, who is a top manager at the Central Bank. With this person, the investigation is sure, she was in cahoots when she pursued the goal of spreading the strategic interests of her native country in Washington. However, she carried out her activities without registration as a foreign agent, and worked according to the instructions of an official from 2015 to February 2017. Thus, we can say that Butina is charged with espionage. Although, as she herself initially stated, this is not at all the case.
As a result of the meeting of representatives of the Russian Embassy in America with Butina, a source of The Moscow Post disseminated information that she told the diplomats. Most likely, Alexander Torshin himself is associated with her conclusion. The girl might have known about his connection with the former governor Leonid Markelov, accused of bribery. In addition, she conducted her activities without agency registration on the territory of a foreign state, by any means trying to get into the political circles of the United States. For this, among other things, she cohabited with a 56-year-old American, allegedly at the direction of Torshin himself.
How does it look from the outside? In fact, the Russian woman came to the United States on a student visa just at the time when the meeting of Presidents D. Trump and V. Putin was taking place. Several analysts speculate that her arrest was a failed initiative to disrupt the meeting.
From the standpoint of rationality, the arrest really looks absurd - how could a student have intervened and influenced American politics? A number of "yellow" media outlets even compare the "new spy" with Anna Chapman, whom the first has already surpassed in popularity.
According to the most obvious version from the press, it was Torshin who was able to "substitute" his assistant with his letter, in which she is compared to Chapman. Prosecutors from the United States did not interpret the correspondence as ironic, but perceived it as a frank revelation of an official from Russia. In her Twitter correspondence with the same politician, by the way, Butina openly discusses various events in both major world powers, which is confirmed by FBI documents.
What will happen to Butina
In December 2018, Butina pleaded guilty in the courtroom and pleaded guilty to a conspiracy against America. She officially confirmed that her actions were directed by an official from Russia.
A new meeting will take place on February 12, 2019, at which the date of the announcement of the verdict will be announced.
According to CNN, the girl may be sentenced to 5 years in prison and subsequent deportation to the Russian Federation. However, according to lawyers, given the deal with law enforcement agencies, the activist can be sentenced to only 6 months in prison.
According to the assumptions of the Russian Foreign Ministry, the deal with the accused was concluded "under psychological pressure."
