Butina’s Arrest ‘An Attempt to Tar NRA With a Russian Connection’ – Author
SputnikNews.com
17.07.2018
The US Department of Justice has charged 29-year-old Russian national Maria Butina with conspiring to act as an agent of Russia within the US. Butina’s attorney slammed the charges, saying she was a student in an American university and in the country on a student visa. Political analyst George Szamuely told Sputnik why the whole case is absurd.
Sputnik: In your view, how justified are the charges against Butina?
George Szamuely: It’s becoming quite dangerous these days to be a Russian; it can be almost a crime to be a Russian and to be meeting and dining with important people. You may be hauled in by the Justice Department and be held without bond, incidentally…as if [you’re] some kind of a drug lord.
The underlying charges [against Butina] are quite absurd. She ‘failed to register as a foreign agent’, and for that she’s being held without bond. I think it just shows that it’s quite a serious business now to be a Russian in America.
Sputnik: What can you tell us about what is actually known so far about this case?
George Szamuely: [Butina] is quite a well-known figure. She was quite a successful businesswoman in Russia. She was also quite a prominent gun rights advocate in Russia. Then she came to the United States and networked with the National Rifle Association while she was doing her master’s degree studies in international relations.
She seems to have met a variety of conservative political figures. She seems to be a very conservative political person in terms of her general ideology. But I don’t see any evidence at all that she has particularly senior contacts with any senior political figures in Russia or that she was actually ever really carrying any kind of political influence operation directed from Moscow. I think she was somebody who believed strongly in the ideals of the National Rifle Association; she’s obviously a gun rights enthusiast.
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