Russian woman working with Kremlin in US indicted as foreign agent

The Russian gun rights activist who was recently charged with conspiring to work for the Russian government was indicted on Tuesday for acting as a Kremlin agent, ABC News reported. 

Maria Butina was indicted by a grand jury on Tuesday on charges of establishing relationships and infiltrating U.S. organizations on behalf of Russia without registering as a foreign agent. She was arrested and charged with conspiracy on Monday. 

Prosecutors typically seek grand jury indictments after filing criminal charges.  

The Department of Justice on Monday said that Butina was being directed by a “high-level” Russian official as she cultivated relationships with the National Rifle Association (NRA) and with conservative politicians from 2015 to 2017. 

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Butina is slated to appear before a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Wednesday, according to ABC.

Her goal was reportedly to create what she called “back channel lines of communication” between Russia and U.S. officials.

The 29-year-old allegedly said she targeted the NRA because they have a “central place and influence” in the U.S. political landscape and that they are the “largest sponsor of the elections to the U.S. Congress” in messages to unnamed people in the U.S., according to ABC. 

The Justice Department referenced a high-level Russian official Butina allegedly worked with several times in the indictment on Monday. It appears to be one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies, Alexander Torshin. Butina worked as an assistant to Torshin.

“The court filings detail the Russian official’s and Butina’s efforts for Butina to act as an agent of Russia inside the United States by developing relationships with U.S. persons and infiltrating organizations having influence in American politics, for the purpose of advancing the interests of the Russian Federation,” stated the Department of Justice press release regarding the charges on Monday. 

The news of Butina’s indictment comes as President Trump faces blowback for his relationship with Putin, whom he seemed to side with on the international stage during a joint press conference in Helsinki on Monday. 

Trump said on Monday that he does not believe Russia sought to influence the 2016 presidential election, despite the U.S. intelligence community’s unanimous conclusion that Russia did interfere.

Though he walked back those comments on Tuesday, he continued to insist Russians were not the only party that meddled in the election.