US justice sentenced Russian spy Maria Butina to 18 months in prison

Maria Butina, the young Russian woman arrested in the United States last July and accused of acting as an agent of Russia without being duly registered, was sentenced Friday by a federal court to 18 months in prisonlocal media reported.

On December 13, Butina, 30, confessed his guilt of a conspiracy crime against the United States and agreed to cooperate with the justice.

According to the prosecution, the alleged Russian spy allegedly wove a network of influential contacts in the United States in favor of the Kremlin during an operation that began in March 2015 and ended in July 2018, at the time of his arrest.

As part of the agreement with the Office of the Prosecutor, Butina provided information on her former partner, Republican Party Counselor Paul Erickson, who for the moment has not been formally charged in the case, said the chain CNN.

However, last February, the state attorney's office in South Dakota filed a lawsuit against Erickson for electronic fraud and money laundering.

Butina also recognized have established a relationship with an American, for which he used the Google translation tool, in order to present him a "project proposal"facing the 2016 elections.

The United States accepts that their citizens and foreigners are working for another country as long as they are duly registered, which Butina has never done.

The Russian citizen began her mission on Russian territory, but in August 2016 he moved to Washington with a student visa, would have been requested as part of the plan of Russia, date at which the US authorities began to find him.

Before and after her entry into the US, Butina, who reportedly worked for a senior Russian official, wove a network of influential contacts in American politics that led her to the most powerful lobby the National Rifle Association (NRA), in which she presented herself as a Russian activist for the defense of the right to carry these machines.

(With information from EFE)