Move FM Global News

WASHINGTON, U.S. – Less than 48 hours back, the life of a 29-year-old Russian national, who had been living in the U.S. was a mystery. 

Earlier this week, Maria Butina became a person of interest for anyone curious about U.S.-Russia ties.

On Monday, Federal prosecutors in Washington said that had arrested Butina and charged her with conspiring against the U.S.

Prosecutors in the U.S. revealed details of Butina’s arrest in court papers and said that she has been accused of acting as a covert agent inside the U.S. on behalf of a senior Kremlin official.

The revelation about her arrest was made merely hours after the U.S. President Donald Trump met with the Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland.

At the time prosecutors first revealed details of her arrest, it was only know that Butina, aged 29 was a recent graduate of American University in Washington D.C. and a Russian gun rights advocate.

She had been accused of working to infiltrate American political organizations, including the National Rifle Association. 

Documents showed that she had been living the U.S. and was charged with conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of the Russian government.

Court papers also revealed that Butina “met with U.S. politicians and candidates, attended events sponsored by special interest groups — including two National Prayer Breakfast events — and organized Russian-American ‘friendship and dialogue’ dinners in Washington with the goal of ‘reporting back to Moscow’ what she had learned.”

The alleged Kremlin official was described as a member of the Russian legislature who later became a top official in the country’s central bank and prosecutors, without naming the official, noted that the person has since been sanctioned by the U.S.

It also emerged that in 2011, Butina founded a pro-gun organization in Russia called the Right to Bear Arms and has since been involved in coordinating between American gun rights activists and their Russian counterparts.

She has hosted several leading NRA executives and pro-gun conservatives at her group’s annual meeting in 2015 and former NRA President David Keene, conservative political operative Paul Erickson and former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke are among those who have attended such annual meetings.

Following her arrest, Robert Driscoll, her attorney issued a statement saying she is not a foreign agent.

The statement stressed that all the charges filed against her are exaggerated.

In her hearing on Wednesday at a U.S. court in Washington D.C., Butina denied both charges in federal court in Washington but was remanded in custody without bail.

She is considered a flight risk as evidenced by a court document submitted on Wednesday, which noted, “Because Butina has been exposed as an illegal agent of Russia, there is the grave risk that she will appeal to those within that government with whom she conspired to aid her escape from the United States.”

She faces up to 15 years in jail.

Court filings made on the day also revealed that Butina was living with an unnamed 56-year-old American, with whom she had a “personal relationship.”

The court papers said, ”But this relationship does not represent a strong tie to the United States because Butina appears to treat it as simply a necessary aspect of her activities.”

According to documents seized by the FBI, she had “expressed disdain for continuing to cohabitate with” the American man.

Further, prosecutors said that she did not appear to take the attachment seriously because “on at least one occasion, Butina offered an individual other than him sex in exchange for a position within a special interest organization.”

U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson ruled that the government had proved there are no conditions of her release that would guarantee her return to court for trial.

The same day, in a statement issued to the Russian media, the country’s Ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov said that the Russian Embassy in the U.S. was doing everything possible to arrange a meeting with Butina and solve her problem as quickly as possible.

Further, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zaharova accused U.S. authorities of detaining Butina right before the summit between Trump and Putin in Helsinki to minimize the positive outcomes of the meeting.

On Thursday, Russia’s Sputnik news confirmed in a report that representatives of the Russian Embassy in the U.S. had visited Butina who remains in U.S. custody.

The officials were said to have spent about two hours with her but after exiting the building in Washington, D.C., the diplomats did not make any comments.

Meanwhile, post the meeting, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on its citizens on Twitter to start a flashmob that was aimed at calling for Butina to be freed. 

The ministry urged Twitter users to start the online “flashmob” calling for the freedom of alleged Russian spy.

A message from the official Twitter account of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday, “In connection with the arrest in the United States of Russian citizen Maria Butina, we’re starting a flashmob in her support. #FreeMariaButina. Put a photo of Maria as your avatar.”