Russian leader Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that "nobody" at his country's spy agencies "knows anything about" Maria Butina — who is charged by U.S. prosecutors with acting as an agent for Russia.
Putin's claim came a day before Butina, a Russia-born gun rights activist, is reportedly expected to plead guilty as part of a deal with prosecutors in federal court in Washington to conspiring with a Russian official and another person to act as a foreign agent.
That conspiracy allegedly involved efforts to infiltrate the National Rifle Association gun rights lobbying group, whose members include Butina's boyfriend, longtime Republican operative Paul Erickson.
The Russian official allegedly involved in the conspiracy is believed to be Alexander Torshin, a former Russian senator who is close to Putin.
Putin's statement also comes as Russia's foreign ministry continues to use Butina's photo and the hashtag motto #FreeMariaButina as the avatar for its official Twitter account.
Putin, according to Reuters, said Tuesday that it is unclear to him why Butina was arrested in the United States, because the chiefs of Russia's intelligence agencies had informed him they do not know anything about her.
"She risks 15 years in jail. For what?" Putin asked.
"I asked all the heads of our intelligence services what is going on. Nobody knows anything about her," Putin said.
Tweet
The claims of ignorance by the Russian leader were quickly met with skepticism.
Tweet
Butina, who had been studying at American University in Washington as a graduate student, was arrested in July on charges of conspiracy and failing to register as a foreign agent.
She pleaded not guilty to those charges, and has remained in custody since then.
That hearing is set for Wednesday.
Last week, the Daily Beast reported that a lawyer for Erickson was sent a letter informing him that prosecutors were considering charging Erickson with secretly acting as an agent for a foreign government.
No comments:
Post a Comment