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

Russian woman Maria Butina in the USA accuse in collusion in the interests of Russia. She tried to build an unofficial channel of communication between countries in the interests of the Russian side. The state prosecution believes that she acted on the instructions of the Russian authorities.

Maria Butina Photos: Facebook

However, from the correspondence of Butina and the documents prepared by her it follows that she acted mainly on her own initiative, writes Air force. She failed to interest the Russian authorities, but she managed to attract the attention of the FBI.

For nine months now, Russian woman Maria Butina has been in prison in Alexandria, Virginia. A civil activist and supporter of gun legalization, she came to the United States on a student visa in 2016 to study at the American University in Washington.

The state prosecution, however, believes that Butina was engaged far from studying. According to the prosecution, Butin, having entered into an “ambitious” plot with former Central Bank deputy chairman Alexander Torshin, planned to establish unofficial channels of communication between Russia and people who are influential in American politics.

Butina worked as Torshin’s assistant in 2012-2015 when he served as first vice-speaker of the Federation Council. The official was also an honorary member of the Right to Gun movement, which Butina founded.

Torshin is known as an active supporter of the legalization of military short-barreled weapons; he received life membership in the National Rifle Association of the United States (NSA). This organization is one of the donors to the Republican Party; it is believed that the NRA is capable of significantly influencing US policy. After Butina’s arrest in the United States, Torshin stopped appearing at work at the Central Bank, and in November 2018 he left his post.

On the subject: Passed her boss: what else did Maria Butina admit

Prosecutors on Friday asked Butina to be sentenced to 18 months in prison. The District of Columbia District Court will hand down the verdict on April 26. The BBC examined partially declassified FBI documents that prosecutors sent to the court as an attachment along with the indictment. It follows from them that Butina’s activities in the United States bore little resemblance to espionage—although state prosecutors do not think so.

What did Butina plan?

The Russian woman began to act at least in March 2015 - then she prepared a plan called “Project Diplomacy.” The BBC has the document.

Butina's plan is a small text on four A4 pages. It contains 10 thousand characters. American prosecutors partially censored it - however, in a number of cases, the BBC was able to understand from open sources what or who it was about.

The document begins with the words: “With a high degree of probability, the US Republican Party will gain full control of the country following the results of the presidential elections.” Butina went on to describe the results of the 2014 midterm elections, which resulted in Republicans gaining a majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

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

Predicted defeat Clinton in the elections

Butina in her document expressed confidence that the next president of the United States would be a Republican. One of the reasons was that she did not appreciate the level of support for a female candidate in the presidential race. The name and party affiliation of the politician are hidden in the document, but it is obvious that this is Hillary Clinton who ran for the Democratic Party.

“The scandal with breaking the law and using personal email (Clinton was caught using her personal email account for work correspondence - BBC), gender of the candidate - a woman has never won [presidential elections] in the USA ,” Butina gave these arguments against Clinton’s victory. “It’s unlikely that people will have the emotional impulse to elect a woman, given all her other negative qualities (her age, her husband’s reputation, etc.).”

The Russian woman was not mistaken in her forecast. The election was won by Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Tied the fall of the US economy with sanctions

“Traditionally, the Republican Party is associated with a negative and aggressive foreign policy, especially towards Russia,” Butina writes in her “plan.” “However, the current time is favorable for building constructive relationships if negotiations are conducted correctly.”

Butina believed that unemployment was rising in the United States, economic growth rates were falling, and people were disappointed with the policies of the American authorities. She named sanctions against Russia and the Kremlin’s countermeasures as one of the reasons for the crisis. As an example, Butina cited the rupture of 2011 agreements on geological exploration and shelf development in the Black and Caspian Seas between two companies from Russia and the United States. The names are also censored, but a similar agreement was concluded between Rosneft and Exxonmobil. After the introduction of sanctions, the companies curtailed their joint work in the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.

Praised myself

Photo: mariabutinafund.ru

Next, Butina described her own achievements. She emphasized the importance and influence of the National Rifle Association (NRA) in American politics. The organization's name was censored by prosecutors, but Butina's plan retained its description - it sponsors Republicans in elections, weapons manufacturers pay contributions to the organization.

Butina told how she established connections with the leaders of the organization who came to Russia at the invitation of the Russian Right to Arms movement that she led. In 2013, David Keane, ex-president and current member of the NRA board, came to the organization’s II Congress in Moscow as guests of honor and experts. Paul Erickson, Butina’s future partner, also attended the event as part of the American delegation.

“Republican, civilian gun owner. He took his first shot at the age of eight. His collection includes more than 15 different types of weapons, including modifications of the Kalashnikov assault rifle,” Butina wrote about him in her LiveJournal. She also noted that Erickson was a political strategist on six presidential campaigns and worked in the White House with President Ronald Reagan.

Later, when she studied at the magistracy of the American University in Washington, she lived with Erickson. Together, they opened Bridges LLC in February 2016. Erickson told reporters that the company was founded to help Butina pay for university tuition if needed.

In her plan, Butina emphasized that all her American contacts appeared thanks to Torshin. “There are no other “informal” contact persons or experts on Russian-American relations in the Republican Party,” Butina concluded.

I met with presidential candidates

Butina noted that at all recent Republican events in which she participated, she was introduced as an “unofficial diplomatic representative” from Russia, and that she allegedly personally met all the Republican presidential candidates.

By March 2015, ten people took steps to enter the US presidential race, including Donald Trump. From the same court documents it follows that Boutina could not personally meet with him, although she asked him about the future of relations between Russia and the United States at a public event.

Moreover, formally in March, 2015, when Butina wrote her plan, only Senator Ted Cruz officially announced her participation in the elections.

I wanted to be a new Posner

In her “plan,” the Russian woman emphasized that in the United States there is a very small number of Russian experts and public organizations that can convey the country’s “unofficial” position—one that government agencies cannot express. She estimates there are about 50 of them—and none of them have ties to the Republican Party.

Republicans see her as perhaps the “second Posner,” who, according to Butina, unofficially broadcast the position of Gorbachev and Yeltsin in the United States, including through American television.

Posner himself does not believe that he was broadcasting someone’s position. “Honestly, it makes me laugh because everything I did, I did absolutely openly,” Vladimir Pozner told the BBC. “I used the media, I did teleconferences with Phil Donahue, I actually had informal contacts among ordinary people.”

Posner admitted that he doesn’t know exactly what Butina was doing, but he thinks she was doing “something different.” “I would be very proud if I really could create a channel of communication between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, and then Russia, but I did not do this at all,” he added.

The journalist noted that some consider him a “super intelligence officer, double or even triple agent,” but he does not pay attention to this. At the same time, Posner says that the FBI also showed interest in him. “In 1987, I traveled around the United States giving lectures in cities and towns, my escort, in violation of orders, told me that in each city an FBI representative met her and asked about my behavior, whether I had seen someone secretly, whether I had tried deliver a parcel or letter,” he said. “There were and may still be suspicions against me.”

Equal to KGB residents

Americans compare the current relations between the United States and Russia with the Cold War period, Butina wrote. Here she recalled that during the Cuban missile crisis, the head of the Soviet KGB station in Washington, Alexander Feklisov (pseudonym Fomin), helped establish a communication channel between Moscow and Washington. He got in touch with his friend ABC News correspondent John Scally and, knowing about his connections with President Kennedy, conveyed to him the Soviet side's proposals for resolving the crisis. In history, this event was called the “Skali-Fomin Canal”.

At the end of her plan, Butina asked to be provided with financial support - to allocate 125 thousand dollars to attend the necessary events and organize the necessary meetings.

Met with the Russian ambassador to the United States. And gave him coins

Summing up the meeting of Butina with the then Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, the American prosecutors concluded that she did not get along with the diplomat. In the annex to the memorandum, the prosecution added notes by Butina, in which she herself summarizes the conversation with Kislyak.

“I gave him coins. The question was asked if they were real. I told about myself that I was [Torshin’s] assistant in the Federation Council, and that I have my own company in Moscow, that I am the founder of the organization [Right to Arms], and that I am writing a dissertation on international relations,” Butina reported.

Following the meeting with Ambassador Butina, she concluded that in the next year or two, relations between Russia and the United States should improve.

I chose the favorite in the presidential race - and was wrong

The documents that prosecutors sent to the court along with the memorandum also contain printouts of Butina’s correspondence with Torshin. Thus, on July 13, 2015, a Russian woman told an official that she was going to an event at which a certain Republican (his name was censored) would announce his candidacy for president. Judging by the date and description of the candidate - he won gubernatorial elections twice and also successfully fought off an attempt to recall him from office - we are talking about Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

- Impressed. His chances are very high,” Butina wrote about the candidate.

- We need to think about this. Walker's nomination is an event! Can you briefly tell us about the event in an email? - Torshin answered her.

Butina sent an email and wrote in it that she had a short personal conversation with Walker, who “has a good memory for faces.” She also said she was introduced to one of Walker's three international policy advisers. “It is very likely that Walker will win the primaries and become a candidate... There is a high probability that [Walker] will be elected president of the United States in 2016,” Butina predicted.

As a result, Walker did not even make it to the primaries—he dropped out of the race two months later.

However, the candidate Torshin and Butin were no longer discussed that day. Much more interest in both caused the theme of the trip to the hunt. Butina told about a certain acquaintance in the USA who is going to hunt on Kamchatka and is ready to take her and Torshin to Alaska.

She complained about the Russian opposition in the US

Among the documents presented by prosecutors, there is a note by Butina “on the formation of an unofficial communication channel between Russia and the United States.” It will help to form “trusting relationships in the business environment and develop opportunities to attract investment,” Butina assured.

Photo: mariabutinafund.ru

She noted that there are no organizations or people through whom such a channel could be established on the Russian side in the United States, and complained about oppositionists “who actively broadcast their hatred of Russia in the [American] press, telling tales of terribly unfair treatment of them in Russia, torture and ridicule, clearly exaggerating the scale of their misfortune.”

“In such a situation, it is very difficult to expect a positive background for official diplomacy,” Butina concluded. At the same time, she wrote, there are scientists, businessmen and politicians in the United States who “hold positive views” on the prospects for Russian-American relations. “Many of them are at the highest levels of the hierarchy in the American establishment,” the Russian woman emphasized.

Butina also proposed holding three events in Washington and New York on 23-25 in May on 2016, for which pro-Russian American politicians, academics and businessmen were supposed to gather. They were supposed to discuss with them how to establish an informal communication channel on the basis of such regular meetings in the USA and Russia.

Paul Erickson sent the Russian woman a list of names of Americans who could be invited to such meetings, and noted that this “would serve as a good start for her conversation with Torshin.” Butina, judging by the document, also had the idea of ​​organizing retaliatory events for pro-Russian Americans in Moscow.

What happened at Butina?

The Russian didn’t manage to realize much. In February 2016, he and Torshin attended the National Prayer Breakfast, an annual event attended by US presidents for more than half a century. In May of the same year, they attended the NRA convention in the States. In February 2017, there was another prayer breakfast, at which Butina hoped to bring Torshin together with Trump, but in the end the meeting did not take place.

According to the Daily Beast, at the last moment the son-in-law of the president and his senior adviser Jared Kushner canceled the meeting, checking the names of the delegation members and finding out that Torshin in Spain was suspected of having links with the Russian mafia and the Tagansky organized criminal group. In early April, 2018 Butinu was invited to testify in closed hearings of the Senate Intelligence Committee. In late April, the FBI agents searched the apartment where she lived with Paul Erickson. 15 July 2018, Butin was arrested.

The prosecution believes that the Russian woman acted under the direction and control of Torshin, fully aware that he was accountable to the rest of the Russian government. They led the expert opinion of the former assistant director of the FBI counterintelligence department Robert Anderson. He reads that the actions of Butina were part of the Russian intelligence operation.

In his opinion, the Russian woman provided the Russian authorities with valuable information, and an unofficial communication channel with the United States would help Russia expand its influence. “In my expert opinion, Butina provided Russia with information that qualified intelligence officials could use for years, which could cause significant damage to the United States,” the expert concluded.

At the same time, prosecutors admit that Butina was not a spy in the traditional sense and do not know whether she would have achieved anything at all as a result of the implementation of the “ambitious” conspiracy.

If the 26 April trial is on the side of the prosecution, Butina will spend another nine months in prison.

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