MOSCOW, June 4. /TASS/. Russian national Maria Butina, currently serving a prison sentence in the US, plans to write a book about her life behind bars, her father Valery Butin told reporters in Moscow.

"I hope this will happen, and she hopes that she’ll be able to talk about all the difficult moments, as well as all the good moments that she has experienced there. We are talking about publishing a book. I’m not sure whether it can be done, but the intention is there," he said in response to a TASS question.

Butina’s case

Maria Butina, 30, was arrested in Washington DC on July 15, 2018, 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.

On April 26, a court in Washington sustained the prosecution’s request for sentencing Butina to 18 months. Judge Tanya Chutkan ignored the defense lawyers’ request Butina should be sentenced to a term equal to the period she has already spent in custody.

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.