Russian operative Maria Butina says her only crime was not registering as a foreign agent.
In the NPR interview, Butina said that she “never officially worked for anyone” and that she appeared with a a title of special assistant to Torshin one time because she was traveling with him and helping him translate. She said she requested business cards with a title because when booking a room, she had been asked whether they would be staying in the same room.
“So I called Mr. Torshin and said, ‘Look I had enough. Could you please let me make business cards for me where people would see that I have a certain title so they won’t view me as your escort agent?’”Butina said she is no longer in touch with Torshin. But she did acknowledge that she shared information with him that was then shared with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and she knew it would be shared.
When Butina was sentenced, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan didn't buy Butina's tearful claims of innocent ignorance of the law, saying,"She was doing this under the direction of a Russian official ... at a time that Russia was looking to interfere with the U.S. political process.”Butina denied being part of the Russian effort to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, telling NPR: “I don't know anything that was going on with the elections rather than the media reports.
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