How Maria Butina, accused Russian spy, worked her way into top US circles
Criminal charges open new front in bid to counter Russian disruption and suggest American associates of Butina, 29, may be under threat
The Las Vegas hotel ballroom was crowded, but the Russian redhead caught Donald Trump’s eye. “Yes, ma’am,” he said, inviting a question.
It was July 2015, and Maria Butina wanted to know what Trump, then a month into his unlikely campaign for the White House, planned to do about US relations with her country. Trump had good news.
“I believe I would get along very nicely with Putin,” he said.
Butina, then 27, was asked on the sidelines of the event why she had travelled all the way to Nevada for a gathering of libertarians and conservatives. “I would like to know more, and to bring this knowledge to Russia,” she said casually. “I hope it will be useful for my country.”
According to US prosecutors, Butina’s patriotic curiosity had by then developed into the beginnings of a criminal conspiracy.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/17/maria-butina-donald-trump-accused-spy-russia-charges
= new reply since forum marked as read
that the red-headed witch rots in jail for a good long time.
