A federal judge in Washington sentenced admitted Russian agent Maria Butina to 18 months in prison on Friday, April 26. The Russian citizen expressed remorse…
A federal judge in Washington sentenced admitted Russian agent Maria Butina to 18 months in prison on Friday, April 26.
The Russian citizen expressed remorse for failing to register as a foreign agent and conspiring with a foreign official to influence American political organizations. Maria Butina pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to act as a Russian agent in the U. S. without registering with the Justice Department, facing up to 5 years in prison.
U. S. District Court Judge Tanya S. Chutkan ordered the 18-month sentence but added that the sentence would include the 9 months she has already served since her arrest in July 2018. In court, Butina said she was sorry that she “harmed the American people” by failing to register as a foreign agent and said she would have registered if she had known that was required, NPR reported.
Butina, a former graduate student at American University in Washington, stated, “For all the international scandal my arrest has caused, I feel ashamed and embarrassed. My parents taught me the virtue of higher education, how to live life lawfully, and how to be good and kind to others… I have three degrees, but now I’m a convicted felon with job, no money and no freedom,” Reuters reported.
Butina admitted to conspiring with a Russian official, Alexander Torshin, who was a deputy governor of Russia’s central bank as well as two Americans from 2015 until her arrest in 2018. She worked with the individuals to attempt to infiltrate the National Rifle Association, an organization strongly aligned with American conservatives and Republican politicians including President Donald Trump.
