Guns pro Russian spy in the US sentenced 18 months

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Maria Butina charmed American conservative leaders with her gun-rights activism but turned out to be a Russian spy who has now been sentenced to 18 months by a DC Federal Judge on Friday.

Judge Tanya Chutkan’s sentence was what the Justice Department requested for Butina, though she’ll serve closer to nine months thanks to time already served in jail. “The conduct was sophisticated and penetrated deep into U.S. political organizations,” Chutkan said before handing down the stiff sentence.

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Butina is a 30-year-old Russian national who came to the U.S. to study at American University in Washington, D.C. and courted gun-rights and conservative activists, especially in the National Rifle Association.

She was arrested last July and charged with violating a U.S. law that bars people from acting as foreign agents without telling the attorney general—a charge Justice Department lawyers characterize as “espionage-lite.” Butina pleaded guilty in December and agreed to cooperate with the government.

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Just before she was sentenced, Butina made an emotional plea for leniency. Her voice shook as she spoke.

“My parents discovered my arrest on the morning news they watch in their rural house in a Siberian village,” she said. “I love them dearly, but I harmed them morally and financially. They are suffering from all of that. I destroyed my own life as well. I came to the United States not under any orders, but with hope, and now nothing remains but penitence.”

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