Russia’s top diplomat is calling on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to free a Russian woman accused of acting as an unregistered foreign agent in the United States.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Saturday that Maria Butina had been detained on “fabricated charges” and called for her release as soon as possible, Reuters reported.
Lavrov made the demand during a phone call with Pompeo aimed at improving relations between the two countries, the Russian Foreign Ministry said, according to Reuters.
According to the outlet, the two diplomats also discussed ways to improve Russia-U.S. relations on “equal and mutually beneficial grounds,” including on issues such as Syria and the “challenges” of working toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. – READ MORE
[divider][/divider]The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) changed the profile pictures of all of its affiliated Twitter accounts to a picture of Maria Butina, a Russian national accused of working with Russian intelligence in the United States.
https://twitter.com/mfa_russia/status/1020043812025110528
Prosecutors charged Butina with failing to register as a foreign agent as she maintained contact with Russian intelligence and attempted to infiltrate American conservative organizations. In a close relationship with conservative operative Paul Erickson, Butina is accused of offering sex in exchange for access to the organizations. – READ MORE
[divider][/divider]Russian operative Maria Butina was indicted this week on charges of being a covert Russian agent.
Butina struck up friendships with the influential leaders of the National Rifle Association and the Conservative Political Action Conference.
Butina was charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of the Russian Federation and is being held without bond.
On Wednesday night investigative reporter John Solomon told Lou Dobbs that the FBI knew about Butina and her operations but they did not warn the conservatives who she was cozying up to.
This is a STUNNING development. – READ MORE