12/27/18
Russia’s state-TV Channel One program, hosted by Andrey Malakhov, has aired a revealing special about Maria Butina, including interviews with her parents, relatives, and friends. She faces a maximum of five years in prison, but is likely to receive zero to six months based on her plea agreement. Russian state television and government officials appear to be deeply concerned about the information Butina has provided to U.S. authorities. In point of fact, Russian state media seems to be preparing the public for upcoming revelations of a sexual nature, openly comparing Maria Butina with Anna Chapman, who was arrested along with nine other agents in 2010, all of whom were exchanged for four spies held by Moscow. (Among them was Sergei Skripal, subsequently the object of an alleged Russian assassination attempt.) Maria Butina’s former friends and colleagues provided the Russian state-TV program with photos from her past that revealed a mousy brown mullet and frumpy attire before her redheaded makeover and glamorous photo-sessions with various weapons.
The admitted agent of influence drastically changed her appearance in the run-up to her exploits in the United States, leading to the impression that she was being groomed a little like the protagonist played by Jennifer Lawrence in the film Red Sparrow. Maria Butina’s former colleague at the Public Chamber Council of Altai Krai, Pavel Tulin, said he wasn’t surprised by her arrest. Tulin speculated that prior to her apprehension, Butina may have been recorded bragging about being a super-agent of the Russian intelligence agencies (SVR, GRU/GU or the FSB), whether or not that was truly the case. “Now she’s paying the price for whatever she blabbed about,” he added. Influential individuals on both sides of the ocean are rightfully concerned by Butina’s potential revelations about the knowledge she put into practice during her dealings with the GOP, the National Rifle Association, and others. “We are at war,” sums up Russian MP Andrey Svintsov. He concludes: “We may not be using conventional weapons, but we are using intellectual and info-weapons.” As one such tool of Russia’s hybrid warfare against the West, Maria Butina still has the potential to cause explosive fallout on both sides of the Atlantic.
