WASHINGTON, October 25. /TASS/. Russian national Maria Butina's prison sentence in the United States was the result of rampant Russophobia, member of the US House of Representatives from Kentucky Thomas Massie said on Friday.

"She [Butina] served a ridiculously long sentence essentially for not filing the right paperwork. But now she is free. Sadly, she was jailed to satiate the rampant Russophobia in the US these days. We are better than this," Massie wrote on his official Twitter account.

Maria Butina was arrested in Washington on July 15, 2018 — ahead of a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump in Helsinki. She was charged with participation in a collusion for carrying out activity on US territory to benefit a foreign state. American intelligence services stated that the Russian citizen carried out this activity without being registered as an agent of a foreign state with the Department of Justice. On April 26, Butina was sentenced to 1.5 years in prison. Moscow stated that the charges were fabricated and demanded that she be released from custody.

Butina's sentence ended on Friday, October 25. She was released from prison and taken under the supervision of the US immigration authorities. The US Department of State said earlier that Butina will fly to Miami in Florida to Moscow. She is expected to arrive in Moscow on Saturday.