WASHINGTON, April 26. /TASS/. US special services have initiated criminal proceedings against Russian citizen Maria Butina partly due to her nationality, Butina’s attorney Robert Driscoll told reporters on Friday.

Earlier, a court in Washington sustained the prosecution’s request for sentencing Butina to 18 months. Judge Tanya Chutkan ignored the defense lawyers’ request that Butina should be sentenced to a term equal to the period she had already spent in custody.

The lawyer was asked whether he thinks of Butina as a political prisoner. "I don’t know if I would go that far, I think we have overall a good process in this country. I don’t think she’s in jail solely because of politics, but I think that anyone who thinks that someone who wasn’t Russian would be in this situation is fooling himself," the attorney replied.

Butina’s case

Maria Butina, 30, was arrested in Washington DC on July 15, right before 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."

On December 13, Butina pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to violate the US law governing foreign agents operating in the country and signed a plea agreement. The prosecution said at the time that the process of Butina’s cooperation with the investigation might take some time.

Butina had arrived in the United States for a course of studies. Last spring, she obtained a master’s degree at American University, where she studied international relations.