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Russia’s Butina to serve prison term in Tallahassee

Maria Butina was arrested in Washington DC on July 15, 2018

WASHINGTON, May 29. /TASS/. Russian national Maria Butina will serve her 18-month sentence in the Tallahassee Federal Correctional Institution, a low-security US federal prison for female inmates in Florida, according to the database of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Attorney Robert Driscoll told TASS that Butina would not be transferred to any other prison in the future and will spend her entire term in Tallahassee.

On April 26, Butina was sentenced to 18 months behind bars. The 30-year-old Butina pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to violate the US law on foreign agents operating in the country and signed a plea agreement.

Butina was arrested in Washington DC on July 15, 2018 - prior to the Helsinki meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump. The US Department of Justice said that she was suspected of acting "as an agent of Russia inside the United States by developing relationships with US persons and infiltrating organizations having influence in American politics, for the purpose of advancing the interests of the Russian Federation."

Moscow insisted that Butina had been arrested on trumped-up charges and demanded her release.