Russian Agent Maria Butina Released From Prison, Expected to Be Deported to Russia

Russian agent Maria Butina has been released from prison after serving 15 months for conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government. Butina tried to infiltrate influential conservative political groups like the National Rifle Association in order to promote Russian interests. The 30-year-old gun rights enthusiast was released from the Tallahassee Federal Correction Institution on Friday. She is set to be deported to Moscow and then return to her home of Barnaul in Siberia. Butina has been in custody since her arrest on July 15, 2018. Russian President Vladimir Putin has called Butina’s punishment “arbitrary,” but Judge Tanya Chutkan, who sentenced Butina in her federal case, called her work on behalf of a Russian official “sophisticated” and “dangerous.” Chutkan said: “This was no simple misunderstanding by an overeager foreign student.”