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Russian woman arrested in Washington, accused of acting as Russian government agent
[Reuters] A 29-year-old Russian woman living in Washington has been arrested and charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of the Russian government while developing ties with American citizens and infiltrating political groups, the U.S. Justice Department said on Monday.Maria Butina, who studied at American University in Washington and is a founder of the pro-gun rights Russian advocacy organization Right to Bear Arms, is accused of working at the direction of a high-level official who worked for the Russian Central Bank and was recently sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the Justice Department said in a statement. The court records do not name the official. However, she is pictured in numerous photographs on her Facebook page with Alexander Torshin, the deputy head of Russia’s Central Bank, and a person familiar with the matter confirmed to Reuters that she worked for him. Torshin was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in April. Butina was arrested on Sunday and was ordered held pending a hearing set for Wednesday, it said. The complaint was made public on the same day that President Donald Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Helsinki, at which Trump refused to blame the Russian leader for meddling in the 2016 election. Before the summit, Trump also took to Twitter to blast Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia, calling it a "rigged witch hunt." Posted by: Besoeker 2018-07-17 |
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