Russian agent convicted in US returns to Moscow
October 26, 2019
Convicted Russian agent Maria Butina arrived home in Moscow on Saturday after being deported by the United States following her release from a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Florida.
Maria Butina, a gun-rights activist who sought to infiltrate conservative US political groups and promote Russia's agenda around the time that US President Donald Trump took office, was released Friday. She had been in custody since her arrest in July 2018.
'Very happy to be back home'
In brief comments to journalists at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport after arriving on an Aeroflot flight from Miami, Butina thanked her supporters. She was accompanied by her father, who had come from their Siberian hometown of Barnaul to meet her.
"I am very, very, very happy to be back home. I am very grateful to everyone who supported me — all the Russian citizens who helped and wrote me letters and donated money for my defense," she said.
The former American University graduate student pleaded guilty in December last year to conspiring to act as an unregistered agent for Russia. The plea deal saw her sentenced to 18 months' jail.
She admitted that she and a former Russian lawmaker worked to leverage contacts in the National Rifle Association to pursue back channels to American conservatives — but she insisted that she was never a spy.
The Russian government has repeatedly denied Butina had any involvement with its intelligence agencies, saying the case made against her was politically motivated.
law/stb (AP, dpa)
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