Maria Valeryevna Butina

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Marija Butina (2014)

Marija Valerjewna Butina ( Russian Мари́я Вале́рьевна Бу́тина ; born November 10, 1988 in Barnaul , Soviet Union ) is a Russian arms lobbyist in the United States . US authorities accuse her of conspiracy against the United States.

Life

Activist in Russia and studied in the USA

Marija Butina studied political science in Barnaul, West Siberia . At the age of 22, she moved to Moscow and, as chairman of the first regional, then all-Russian association, right to arms, was involved in the right of Russians to own handguns . Although the issue was discussed among opposition members in the face of criminal police officers, Butina was a supporter of Putin. The Russian association worked with the US gun lobby National Rifle Association(NRA) together. During a television appearance in 2013, she vigorously advocated new gun laws in Russia. Marija Butina visited the USA on several occasions from 2014 and began studying at the American University in 2016 with a student visa . Among other things, she took courses in cybersecurity and completed the expensive course with a master’s degree in May 2018 . In the same year, the Russian Association of Right to Arms was liquidated due to incompatibility with Russian laws.

In 2015, Butina asked then-election campaigner Donald Trump a question about his Russia strategy at an event in Las Vegas . Trump had called them himself. Butina argued in an article published by The National Interest magazine that a Republican candidate's victory in the 2016 presidential election could improve Russian-US relations. This was also recorded and distributed by the Russian news agency RIA.

In 2017, Alexander Torzhin , Deputy Chairman of the Russian Central Bank and State Secretary, tweeted about Marija Butina: “You outdo Anna Chapman . She poses with game pistols, but you - with real ones. ”She had worked for Tore 2011 as a Duma assistant and interpreter. Both are members of the NRA for life.

Indictment and conviction as a conspirator and agent

She was arrested in Washington, DC on July 15, 2018, just before the summit of the Presidents of Russia and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, in Helsinki . She was accused of having acted as an agent in the interests of the Russian state (18 USC § 951) and in a conspiracy against the USA (18 USC § 371) without registering with the US authorities . According to US investigators was a flight risk and she was in custody taken.

Butina had established a relationship with Paul Erickson from South Dakota , a political advisor to the Republican Party who was almost twice her age and the representative of the US weapons lobby NRA , with whom she also lived and who allegedly financed Butina's studies. Erickson was named "US Person No. 1" in the indictment. In September 2018, prosecutors admitted that they misinterpreted text messages between Butina and a friend and that the allegation based on them of offering sex in return for a job was a false accusation. The public prosecutor's office nevertheless demanded that the pre-trial detention be retained because of the risk of escape. Since her arrest, it has become clearer that Butina is a Russian agent. The public prosecutor's office justified this with the intensity of the consular support provided to Butina by the Russian government and with the complaints made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to his US counterpart.

In addition to NRA conferences, she attended events such as the Conservative Political Action Conference and, on January 31, 2017 with Torch, the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC The "US Person No. 2" in the indictment is George D. O'Neill, according to Bloomberg Jr., fifth generation elder of the Rockefeller Clan and host of the National Prayer Breakfast. The event is seen as a religious, non-partisan contact forum, in which every American president since Dwight D. Eisenhower has taken part.

In a 29-page report, US FBI investigators accuse Butina of attempting to infiltrate both the US gun lobby, the NRA, and the Republican Party. She is said to have met Russian intelligence officials in the US on a regular basis and received financial support from an oligarch close to the Kremlin . She is said to have worked as an agent from 2015 to 2017 and got her assignments from a contact in the Russian Central Bank. This person has been on the US sanctions list since April 2018 . According to the FBI, Butina is said to have been his "special assistant".

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called his US counterpart Mike Pompeo and asked for Butina to be released immediately. He described the procedure against the Russian woman as "inadmissible".

In mid-December 2018, Butina admitted to having worked under the guidance of a Russian official since 2015 and pleaded guilty to the conspiracy against the United States (Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud United States) . The aim was to gain influence on the NRA. In return for the confession and the announced cooperation with the investigative authorities, the second charge of acting as an unregistered foreign agent was dropped. On December 14, 2018, Lavrov commented on Butina's announced collaboration with the US authorities as a result of some kind of alleged torture. Solitary confinement was lifted at the end of December 2018, and in April 2019 it seemed foreseeable that she would not be sentenced to more than the six months' imprisonment that she had already been in custody, which means that she could have been deported to Russia immediately after the verdict was announced. The verdict of April 26, 2019 instead included 18 months in prison. On October 25, 2019, Marija Butina was finally released from custody in Tallahassee , handed over to the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement and flown to Russia on a plane that same day.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d Viktor Davydov: Meet Maria Butina, the FBI's Russian gun nut undeclared foreign agent. In: Meduza . July 18, 2018, Retrieved August 3, 2018 (English, translation from Russian by Kevin Rothrock).
  2. ↑ Julia Joffe: The Rise of Russia's Gun Nuts , The New Republic , November 16, 2012
  3. ↑ How Maria Butina, accused Russian spy, worked her way into top US circles , The Guardian, July 17, 2018
  4. ↑ a b c Maria Butina: Alleged Russia agent 'offered sex for job' , BBC, July 19, 2018
  5. ↑ Peter Blunschi: The mysterious «Agent» Maria Butina. In: Watson . July 26, 2018, accessed August 3, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Stefan Koch: The woman who came out of the cold. In: Märkische Allgemeine . July 22, 2018, accessed August 3, 2018 .
  7. ^ Casey Michel: Here are all the Republican leaders and conservative activists Maria Butina met. In: ThinkProgress (Project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund). July 17, 2018, accessed August 3, 2018 .
  8. ^ Maria Butina: The Bear and the Elephant. In: The National Interest . June 12, 2015, accessed on August 3, 2018 (English): "It may take the election of a Republican to the White House in 2016 to improve relations between the Russian Federation and the United States."
  9. ↑ Vladimir Kozlovsky: Консерваторий. In: Novaya Gazeta . August 1, 2018, accessed on August 16, 2018 (in Russian): "Но дальше сообщалось, что Бутина встречалась с ними в качестве переводчицы своего ментора , бывшего сенатора, а потом зампреда Центробанка Александра Торшина, который приезжал в США в апреле 2015 года. "
  10. ↑ a b Vladimir Kozlovsky: Агентесса влияния. In: Novaya Gazeta . July 21, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018 (Russian).
  11. ↑ Grand jury indicts Maria Butina, a Russian national with deep ties to the NRA, for conspiracy and acting as a Russian agent , Business Insider , July 17, 2018
  12. ↑ a b Sharon LaFraniere, Adam Goldman: Maria Butina Suspected Secret Agent, Used Sex in Covert Plan Prosecutors Say. In: The New York Times. July 18, 2018, accessed July 24, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Agents or just lovers? , Novaya Gazeta, February 9, 2019
  14. ↑ Stefan Scholl: Sex against influence: The Maria Butina case becomes a US-Russian crime thriller. In: Kölnische Rundschau . July 26, 2018, accessed August 3, 2018 .
  15. ↑ a b Sharon LaFraniere: Prosecutors In Spy Case Admit Error On Sex Claim . In: The New York Times . New York edition. September 9, 2018, p. A18 (American English, nytimes.com [accessed December 20, 2018] published online September 8, 2018 under a different heading).
  16. ↑ Polly Mosendz, Greg Farrell, Ilya Arkhipov: Butina Sought a Secret Kremlin Line to the US A Rockefeller May Have Helped. In: Bloomberg. July 26, 2018, accessed August 3, 2018 .
  17. ↑ Florian Schillat: Coffee and cake event with Donald Trump - the AfD is also invited. In: Stern . February 8, 2018, accessed August 3, 2018 .
  18. ↑ Russian billionaire with US investments backed alleged agent Maria Butina, according to a person familiar with her Senate testimony , Washington Post, July 22, 2018
  19. ↑ Martha Wilczynski: An arrest against the rapprochement? In: tagesschau.de. ARD, July 24, 2018, accessed on July 24, 2018 .
  20. ↑ a b Rozina Sabur: Accused Russian agent Maria Butina pleads guilty to attempting to sway US policy. In: The Daily Telegraph . December 13, 2018, accessed December 20, 2018 .
  21. ↑ Russian foreign minister says Maria Butina was 'tortured' into cooperating with US law enforcement , Meduza, December 14, 2018
  22. ↑ Butina was allowed to come into contact with other prisoners in the USA , Interfax.ru, December 28, 2018
  23. ↑ Goodbye, Amerika , Novaya Gazeta, April 4, 2019
  24. ↑ The Russian Maria Butina was sentenced to 18 months in prison for conspiracy in the interests of Russia , Novaya Gazeta, April 26, 2019
  25. ↑ Devlin Barrett: National Security: Russian gun rights advocate Maria Butina released from prison, deported . In: The Washington Post , October 25, 2019, accessed October 26, 2019.
  26. ↑ Russian spy Maria Butina released from custody . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , October 25, 2019, accessed on October 26, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Butina, Marija Valeryevna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian gun lobbyist in the USA
DATE OF BIRTH November 10, 1988
PLACE OF BIRTH Barnaul