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Butina’s guilty plea predictable, says father

Maria Butina has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the law governing foreign agents operating in the US
US District Court for the District of Columbia  Boris Makarov/TASS
US District Court for the District of Columbia
© Boris Makarov/TASS

BARNAUL, December 14. /TASS/. Attorneys for Maria Butina, arrested in the US, adopted the right strategy, and the outcome of yesterday’s hearing was expected, her father, Valery Butin, told TASS.

On Thursday, Butina pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the law governing foreign agents operating in the US. She also agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors. The US District Court for the District of Columbia accepted Butina’s guilty plea and set the date for the next hearing on her case for February 12. The date for the court’s ruling was not assigned at the request of a representative of the US Attorney’s Office who said that Butina had agreed to cooperate with the investigation and this process could take some time.

"We could hardly expect anything else. That’s basically something that was supposed to have happened. We believe that Maria’s attorneys are keeping their fingers on the pulse, handling the case at their discretion and in the right direction," Butin stated.

There were earlier reports that Butina has been held in solitary confinement since November. She can only communicate with her family by phone for just two hours when she was allowed to leave the cell. Butina has not spoken about the details of the case with her family yet since the judge issued a gag order.

Butina case

Maria Butina, who studied at American University in Washington, had been arrested on July 15 ahead of the Helsinki summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump. The Russian gun rights activist is facing charges of conspiracy for conducting activities in the interests of a foreign state. Investigators claim that she was engaged in these activities without registering as a foreign agent at the US Department of Justice.

During his July 21 phone conversation with US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov demanded Butina’s speedy release, having deemed the charges against her as fabricated.