Russian spy Maria Butina will be released from jail on Friday

Russian spy Maria Butina will be released from prison on Friday and will be escorted back to Moscow, Russia, her lawyer revealed.

Butina is a pro-gun activist from Russia who infiltrated conservative political circles in the U.S. on behalf of the Kremlin around the 2016 election. 

The 30-year-old was convicted of conspiring to act as an unregistered foreign agent and was sentenced to 18 months in prison in April. She had already served nine months in a Virginia detention center following her July 2018 arrest. 

On Friday she’ll be released from Federal Correction Institute Tallahasee, a low security prison in Florida and will be escorted back to Moscow by two Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, her lawyer Robert Driscoll said to the Washington Examiner.

The details of her itinerary have not been disclosed citing security reasons.  

‘They tend to do these things like they’re moving a nuclear bomb, and they’re not,’ Driscoll said on the U.S. government’s secrecy. 

Butina is a pro-gun activist from Russia who infiltrated conservative political circles in the U.S. on behalf of the Kremlin around the 2016 election

The 30-year-old was convicted of conspiring to act as an unregistered foreign agent and was sentenced to 18 months in prison in April. She had already served nine months in a Virginia detention center following her July 2018 arrest

Driscoll said he won’t know where Butina is or if she’s been released until she calls him prior to the last part of her trip home. He says she’ll likely call him early Saturday morning from Europe prior boarding a flight to Moscow.  

‘My thought would be that she’ll fly to Atlanta, bounce to Europe somewhere, and then fly to Moscow, and get there midday Saturday,’ Driscoll predicted on her plans. 

He says he will be the one to notify Butina’s father what flight she’s on so her family, including her mother and sister, can meet her when she touches down in Moscow. 

‘She might stay in Moscow for a night,’ before traveling for their home in Barnaul, Driscoll said. 

However, the Russian Embassy in Washington, warned that the expulsion process could take ‘several days’.

‘As we understand, Maria will be sent through a deportation center where she will spend some time awaiting departure,’ the embassy shared on Facebook. 

Butina reportedly bought an outfit off Amazon to replace her prison uniform for her big departure. Driscoll says she won’t bring any bags with her to the airport as ICE only allows her to take one 40lb bag. 

Butina was arrested in the U.S. government’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. She was the only Russian national arrested in the Robert Mueller investigation.

While serving time at the Federal Correction Institute in Tallahassee, Florida she worked 10am to 6pm shifts at the prison cafeteria. She’d go for five-mile runs every morning and with money sent from her friends she bought an MP3-player and running shoes

In the two-year Special Counsel probe, Mueller charged 25 Russians including 12 intelligence officers and three Russian companies.

While Butina’s lawyers argued she was a gun rights activists trying to improve Russian relations with the US, she was accused of acting under the direction of Alexander Torshin, a big figure in Russian politics.

Federal prosecutors argued she provided intelligence to the Kremlin.

She had originally faced up to five years in prison. 

Despite serving jail time, Driscoll still argues that Butina is not a spy.

‘If she were a Russian spy, she wouldn’t have hung around for the feds to come talk to her. They talked to her boyfriend first. That gave her a warning. If she were a spy, she would have taken her stuff and dumped it. She had the opportunity to do that. She could have gotten rid of it but she didn’t. Eleven FBI agents searched her apartment. They found nothing,’ he said.  

While Butina’s lawyers argued she was a gun rights activists trying to improve Russian relations with the US, but she was accused of acting under the direction of Alexander Torshin, a big figure in Russian politics (together above)

Butina was initially held at Alexandria Detention Center in Northern Virginia before she was handed down her official sentence. In Virginia she ‘didn’t cause any trouble’ and ‘was quiet and kept to herself’, a law enforcement official said to the Examiner.

Her lawyer said in Virginia she ‘looked like s**t’ but life improved in Florida.

‘She was really happy about the good. She gained some weight, in a healthy way. She was happy to get fruit and vegetables every day,’ Driscoll said. 

In Florida she worked in the prison cafeteria where she washed dishes and served food. She’d start every morning with a five-mile run around the prison track before reporting to work at 10am and would wrap up her shift at 6pm.  

‘After work, she had some downtime when she could read, or answer mail, or have time to herself. Then she’d go to bed and the next day start it all again,’ Driscoll said. 

He added that friends sent Butina money in jail which she used to buy an MP-3 player and running shoes.