Maria Butina gave an interview with James Bamford, an American journalist. This is her first interview that appeared in the US media. It presented her position. Bamford was recording the interview for six months, including by telephone, to publish an article about the so-called "Russian spy".
Anna Voronina studied the material.
James Bamford called Maria Butina "the perfect scapegoat" in the first lines. The Russian woman perfectly fits the image made by Anna Chapman... A confident look and red hair. This is what the prosecutors apparently grasped at. But in reality, Maria Butina is far from being a spy. She had a chance to say this for the first time in an interview with Bamford.
"If I were a Russian spy in deep cover, you would have never seen me in public. I mean, I would be the most invisible person on earth".
Bamford emphasized this once more — There's no evidence of Butina's guilt. First of all, she never sought to meet influential people in the USA. On the contrary, it was they who noticed the Russian activist, who was vocal for the right to bear arms. For the National Rifle Association, which strove to expand its influence outside the country, Butina was an ideal candidate. In 2014, the former head of the association personally invited the woman to visit a convention of gunmakers. Secondly, spies are unlikely to inform social media about every step they take. Thirdly, Bamford concluded, if she really wanted to influence US authorities, her social circle would be completely different.
"To a Kremlin-directed agent of influence, as Butina supposedly is, Jeffrey Gordon would seem to have been the perfect catch: a senior military officer with high-level Pentagon and White House connections, and, most importantly, a key national security link to Trump on the eve of the election. Yet, instead of recruiting him, Butina dismissed him. Too strange for a supposed secret agent".
Bamford began to communicate with Maria even before she was arrested and he continued after she was detained. The woman told the journalist about everything... How they started gathering activists in Russia who see weapons as a means of protection, and that she was going to help overcome differences between the countries using not political but social ties. Bamford frankly called such a pursuit nothing more than the naive hopes of a grad student, not the plotting of a Kremlin operative. The author thinks Butina pleaded guilty just to leave behind horrible confinement conditions.
James Bamford, journalist: "She is terrified by what's happening. I think she signed the plea deal so that the nightmare would end and she would return to Russia".
Butina's relatives perceive Bamford's article very seriously because it allowed the US media to hear Maria out. Russia hopes the hearing of the case will be over soon and that in March the woman will be released.
Anna Voronina.
