The court in the United States issued a sentence to the Russian spy Butina: she has already served half of the term

Russian woman Maria Butina received 18 months in prison according to the verdict of an American court - this is exactly the term prosecutors insisted on. Butina was accused of conspiracy in the interests of the Russian authorities. The essence of the claims against Butina is that she tried to create an informal channel of communication between American politicians and Moscow to promote Russian interests. She had ambitious plans, but only managed to meet a few politicians in the United States and attend a couple of closed events.

Photo: facebook.com/mariavbutina

The District of Columbia District Court on Friday put an end to the high-profile case of Maria Butina. The Russian woman was sentenced to one and a half years in prison - as requested by the prosecution. The defense insisted on a term that would be less than or equal to what had already been served - Butina has been in prison since July 15 last year, writes Air force.

«Not by order, but hopefully«

Judge Tanya Chatken said that one and a half years in prison was sufficient punishment, given the seriousness of the charges brought by Butina. By a court decision, a Russian woman may be deported back home after serving a term.

On appeal, Butina has 14 days.

At the same time, Chatken stated that Boutina did not just study the US political system, but met with American politicians who could influence Washington’s relations with Moscow.

Photo: mariabutinafund.ru

She reported about her acquaintances to the Russian official, Alexander Torshin. Butina’s actions “threatened the national security of the United States,” the judge concluded. Neither the fact that Butina is a “devoted daughter, sister and granddaughter”, nor the fact that she is a “hardworking and smart girl,” as Chatken herself noted, saved the Russian woman from another 9 months in prison.

During the hearing, Butina herself tried to convince the judge that she repented and asked to let her go home to Russia. “I came to the USA to get an academic degree, and I believed that this was the best place in the world for this,” the Russian woman explained the purpose of her trip to the States. “I didn’t come on anyone’s orders, but with hope.”

Butina said that she wanted to connect her life with international relations. “I regret my crime. My reputation is in ruins, both at home and abroad. “I am responsible for my actions,” the Russian woman told the judge. Her voice trembled.

Photo: facebook.com/mariavbutina

Butina admitted that she wanted to build friendly relations between Russia and the United States, but in the end she created this criminal case for herself. She noted that her parents learned about their daughter’s arrest from the media. Butina thanked all the friends and relatives who supported her. “I saw people in prison who didn’t have 30 seconds to make a phone call, and people who didn’t get visits,” she said. The Russian woman asked to be allowed to go home so that she could start her life again. Butina argued that she would definitely register as a foreign agent with the US Department of Justice if she knew that she had to do this.

However, the prosecution insisted that the crime of Butina is much more serious than the violation of the rules of registration in the Ministry of Justice.

The Russian woman in late March, asked to deport her from the United States after the sentencing. The defenders Butina appealed to the court with the corresponding petition, they were supported by the prosecutor. Back in February, a Russian citizen's passport was handed over to the immigration and customs service, her representatives argued that they were ready to carry out a court decision and send Butin out of the country as soon as they received the sentence.

How an “unconventional spy” went into reconnaissance. To no avail

The verdict was preceded by a dispute between the Russian woman’s defense and prosecutors. A week before his sentencing, on the evening of Friday, April 19, the prosecution sent to the court a memorandum containing the expert opinion of former FBI counterintelligence assistant Robert Anderson on the Butina case. He called her actions in the United States part of a Russian intelligence operation. Anderson believed that the defendant provided Russian authorities with valuable information “that intelligence officials could use for years.” In his opinion, Russia could use information about American politicians for their further recruitment. And the unofficial channel of communication between the United States and Russia, which Butina tried to create, could help the Kremlin expand its influence in the States, the expert noted.

Maria Butina in 2013 year.
Photos: Maria Butina’s Facebook page

Based on this conclusion, the prosecution admitted that Butina, although not a spy “in the traditional sense,” was involved in “a broader Russian scheme to collect information and establish relationships and communication channels” that the Kremlin could exploit to its advantage. . Butina’s activities “could potentially harm US national security,” prosecutors considered. They asked the court to take the crimes committed by Butina seriously, noting that the Russian woman did not just violate the rules for registering as a foreign agent.

Butina’s defense called the conclusion of the ex-FBI employee a “completely new theory” for the prosecution. Defense attorney Robert Driscoll noted in his petition to the judge that Butina is “not a spy in any sense,” and the expert did not provide evidence to support his conclusion. The defense lawyer called Anderson's conclusions speculation without a factual basis. In particular, the expert did not give examples of valuable information collected by Butina, the lawyer noted. There is also no evidence that Russian intelligence subsequently contacted any of her American acquaintances in an attempt to recruit them, the defense lawyer believes. Driscoll considered that the prosecution could not prove Butina’s involvement in espionage, and now it accuses her of working as a “spotter” for Russian intelligence, and prosecutors explained the absence of a crime by the Russian woman’s experience and conspiracy.

Maria Butina Photos: Facebook

The lawyer asked the judge to exclude Anderson’s testimony from the case. In response, prosecutors said that they did not object to the postponement of the sentence in order to allow the defense counsel to question the expert at the meeting, although they did not ask for it. Moreover, the defenders objected to any delay in making a decision in the Butina case. The judge, as a result, rejected Driscoll's petition and did not postpone the pronouncement of the verdict.

An agent of the Kremlin or a naive amateur diplomat

Butina last December pleaded guilty to collusion in the interests of Russia and the absence of registration as a foreign agent. Under this charge, she was threatened with up to five years of imprisonment and / or a fine of 250 thousand dollars, but the deal with the investigation reduced the length of her sentence.

The Russian woman was accused of coming to the United States under the guise of a student - Butina was receiving a degree at the American University, but in fact she was doing more than just studying. She prepared a plan called “Project Dilomaty,” in which she proposed to establish informal channels of communication between the United States and Russia. Prosecutors argued that Butina’s actions were directed by a Russian official, Alexander Torshin. The correspondence of the Russian woman with him seized by the FBI suggests that Butina reported to him about her actions.

Butina worked as Torshin’s assistant in 2012-2015 when he served as first vice-speaker of the Federation Council. Then Torshin went to work at the Central Bank, becoming its deputy chairman. Now he has ceased to be an official - immediately after the arrest of the Russian woman in the United States, Torshin went on vacation, then took sick leave, and on November 30 left the Central Bank.

Butina’s plan was that Torshin should build Moscow’s dialogue with Republicans in the United States and the new president. The Russian woman still in the 2015 year believed that the Republican candidate would win the presidential elections in the States, and figured out how to build communication between Moscow and Washington in the interests of the Russian side, including through the National Association of the United States (NSA).

Photo: mariabutinafund.ru

It was no coincidence that she chose the NRA - in the USA the organization is considered influential and rich, the association sponsors the Republican Party. Butina founded the “Right to Weapons” movement in Russia and advocated the legalization of military short-barreled weapons. Torshin, who was even a lifelong member of the NRA, adhered to the same views. His connections with the association Bi-bi-si described in detail here.

Butina chose the following tactics: get to know pro-Russian Republicans, organize friendship dinners for them, go to events in which US President Donald Trump is participating, and arrange a conversation between Torshin and him. She advised the official to give the president a gold coin from the Central Bank as a sign of the value of good relations between Russia and the United States.

Butina’s “ambitious” plan, as prosecutors call it, was only partially successful. In May 2016, she and Torshin attended the NRA convention, where Trump spoke. In February 2017, they came to the National Prayer Breakfast, an annual event attended by US presidents for more than half a century. Butina hoped to bring Torshin and Trump together there, but in the end the meeting did not take place. The Daily Beast wrote that the meeting was canceled by the president's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner. He found out that Torshin in Spain was suspected of having connections with the Russian mafia and the Taganskaya organized crime group.

If prosecutors considered the Russian woman an agent of the Kremlin’s influence, the defense tried to present her as an “amateur diplomat.”

Lawyers sought to prove that the entire crime was that Butina did not register as a foreign agent. In court, they argued that the accused was an intelligent and successful girl, “whose world collapsed” because of her decision to help relations between Moscow and Washington and discussion of her ambitions with Torshin.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Passed her boss: what else did Maria Butina admit

Was the espionage: the FBI revealed details of Butina’s plan in the USA?

'Privyet Maria, kak di la': how Butina communicated with a member of the Trump team

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.