Russian woman charged in Washington with acting as a Russian Federation spy

Open source

According to the press service of the US Justice Department, Maria Butina, 29, a Russian citizen living in Washington, was arrested on July 15, 2018, in Washington DC.

The trial, which took place on her case on Sunday, left her in custody until a preliminary hearing scheduled on July 18, 2018.

According to the investigation, from 2015 to 2017, Butina worked at the direction of a high-level official in the Russian government who was previously a member of the legislature of the Russian Federation and later became a top official at the Russian Central Bank. The agency stressed that this Russian person is under the US Treasury sanctions since April 2018.

«Butina, at the direction of a high-level Russian official, acted as a Russian agent in the United States. She established relationships with Americans political organizations, infiltrate those groups and advance the interests of the Russian Federation,» – the US government said in a statement.

As «The Journalist» reported earlier, the UK checks the security of all double agents from Russia.