Maria Butina: Russian gun activist at heart of US Kremlin row
Maria Butina loves guns, has ties to a top Russian banker, and has now landed in an American jail accused of conspiring against the US government at a time when relations with Moscow are in ferment. Her arrest was revealed within hours of President Donald Trump's heavily criticised summit with Vladimir Putin, and Russia smells a rat. Moscow sees a political motive aimed at undermining their Helsinki summit, but in the US this is the eye-catching story is of a 29-year-old accused of being a "covert Russian" who offered sex in return for a job. Ms Butina denies the charges against her. She is not accused of being a spy. Who is Maria Butina? Born in the southern Siberian city of Barnaul in 1988, according to her Facebook page, she has enjoyed using weapons ever since she was a child, picking up a gun for the first time at the age of 10. She went to the local Altai state university to study political and educational science, according to her Facebook page. She a...
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