In the US, a Russian woman was detained on suspicion of espionage

On the day of the meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, Russian citizen Maria Butina was detained in Washington on charges of allegedly unregistered activity in the United States as an agent acting in the interests of the Russian Federation. This is stated in a statement released on Monday by the US Department of Justice.

It alleges that Butina “acted as an agent of Russia in the United States, developing relationships with American citizens and gaining access to organizations that influence American politics in order to advance Russian interests.” The document also notes that the Russian woman could face up to five years in prison, writes TASS.

Judicial hearings in the case of Butina are scheduled for July 18 in the District of Columbia court.

The consular department of the Russian Embassy in the United States finds out the whereabouts of the Russian woman Maria Butina, who is suspected of spying in Washington, and finds out the circumstances of her arrest. This is stated in the message of the diplomatic mission in Facebook.

Robert Neil Driskol, attorney for Butina, said that she is not an agent of the Russian Federation, adding that she is an ordinary Russian citizen who is in the United States on a student visa, recently graduated from Washington with a master’s degree in international relations, TASS quoted the defense message. According to the lawyer, there is no evidence that Butina was trying to influence or undermine US policy.

He also said that a few months ago, Buta had testified in the US Senate about suspicions about her contacts, the survey lasted eight hours, she provided thousands of documents. According to the lawyer, despite the willingness of Russians to cooperate, in April, FBI agents searched her apartment.

Who is Mary Butina?

Maria Butina is a Russian activist for the right to bear arms freely, an assistant to former Russian senator Alexander Torshin, who established ties with the top leadership of the National Rifle Association.

In July, 2015, at a general meeting in Las Vegas, convened to nominate Donald Trump for the presidential election, Butina took the microphone, writes Inosmi. The activist asked the candidate of the Republican Party to tell more about his foreign policy, "especially in relation to my country."

Trump promised that if he was elected president, he would improve relations with Russia. “I know Putin, and I can say that Putin and I get along,” said Trump.

Butina, who did not respond to our request for comment, told the Washington Post in April that her question to Trump was simply “a good coincidence,” and that she had never worked for the Russian government.

Initiatives of Maria Butina in Russia

Butina has been involved in the defense of people prosecuted for self-defense with the use of weapons for many years - she helps lawyers, attracts public attention, and, together with a team of activists, attends court hearings, she says Lenta.ru. On the question of why self-defense often leads to the fact that the defending person goes to prison, Mary replied:

“I think that these are echoes of the Soviet system, in which the rule“ there is a corpse, means that someone must sit down ”. We recommend that the owners of weapons in the first place not to go beyond the limits of necessary self-defense, to call an ambulance and the police themselves. Provide some possible first aid to the attacker, meet emergency services. But all this does not guarantee protection from criminal liability. ”

“There are two concepts of self-defense. The first is called "Stay where you are." It provides that you are standing still and can use weapons if someone invades your territory with the purpose of attack. This concept works in the USA, Israel, Italy. Another model - under the conditional name “Fall back while you can” - works in Russia, Great Britain and several other European countries. It provides that the person who was attacked, runs off as much as he can and, when he is already pinned into a corner and starts to beat, he uses a weapon. At the same time, the criminal must be warned that he will get a bullet now, if he does not lag behind, and so on. ”

My home is my castle

One of Maria’s initiatives, “My Home is My Fortress,” quickly gained the required hundred thousand votes on the Russian Public Initiative website.

“This initiative has passed the necessary checks, the federal commissions, got into the government and has been there for two years. There is no progress. We repeatedly went to rallies, wrote appeals. The concept of “My home is my fortress” is the first step towards the protection of your home and family. It assumes that if someone invades your home, you have the right to immediately use a weapon. According to statistics, the police take a law-abiding citizen for the perpetrator in eleven percent of cases, but a person who is being attacked is mistaken only in two percent. I think you will surely distinguish the one who came to visit, from the villain who decided to kill your family. ”

According to Maria, the initiative to legalize weapons in Russia has no opponents. There are those who do not have enough information, but their arguments are defeated by real life practice. “It makes no sense to operate with such concepts as “weapons are created to kill” and so on. 0,006 percent of crimes are committed with legal weapons, which include poaching and improper storage,” the activist said in an interview.

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