Russia open to negotiations on prisoner swap for Brittany Griner

Mrleft8

Mrleft8

Super Anarchist
27,795
4,204
Suwanee River
If Putin is such an angel, as he likes to portray himself. Why would he use a basketball player as collateral for an international arms dealer (Known as "The merchant of death")
And why would he be bargaining for an accused Canadian spy, with a convicted assassin, and contract killer, being held by Germany?
Bout has already said that he's going to go in to the Ukraine and kill people....
If Putin is such an honorable man, why would he do this?
Or should we become aware that Putin is just like the Loser guy? A blatant liar, and corrupt individual who needs to be disappeared?
 
S

spankoka

Super Anarchist
7,261
601
Vancouver BC Canada
The Ukrainians should maybe be grateful that Blount sent Russian weapons are all over the world-all except for Russia "apparently according to the information".
 
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Mike in Seattle

Mike in Seattle

Super Anarchist
4,564
786
Latte land
, at the end of July I said;



1670684416696.png



Propaganda WIN to Putin.
 
badlatitude

badlatitude

Super Anarchist
32,470
6,605
Ishmael said:
Well, guess who.
Click to expand...
THis was an embarrassing moment for the United States.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A tantalizing chapter in Russia’s efforts to collect intelligence on American politics came to a close on Friday as a woman who worked as a covert agent was released from prison to be returned to her home country.

Maria Butina, a gun rights activist who sought to infiltrate conservative U.S. political groups and promote Russia’s agenda around the time that Donald Trump rose to power, left a low-security facility in Tallahassee, Florida and boarded a plane home to Moscow. She had been in custody since her arrest in July 2018.

Butina, a former American University graduate student, pleaded guilty last December to conspiring to act as an unregistered agent for Russia. She admitted that she and a former Russian lawmaker worked to leverage contacts in the National Rifle Association to pursue back channels to American conservatives during the 2016 presidential campaign, when Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton.

She violated U.S. law because she did not report those efforts to the Justice Department, which requires the registration of lobbyists and others in the U.S. who do the bidding of foreign governments. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison but received credit for time already served.

Her lawyers said Friday that she was not a spy and that the case had nothing to do with espionage or election interference. They cast the crime as more technical than substantive.

“As the government acknowledged, all of her activity in the United States was, in and of itself, legal but for her failure to file a notice with the Attorney General, an obligation prosecutors acknowledged she was unaware of,” her attorneys, Robert Driscoll and Alfred Carry, said in a statement. “For violating this notice requirement, she pleaded guilty and was sentenced.”

The Butina case captivated public attention because it unfolded around the same time as special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, even though the two probes were entirely separate. It also led to scrutiny of the political dealings of the powerful NRA and underscored the variety of tools at Russia’s disposal as it looks to gain a foothold in American institutions.

A report last month from Sen. Ron Wyden , an Oregon Democrat, alleged that the NRA acted as a “foreign asset” for Russia in the run-up to the election, and that NRA insiders provided access to the American political system to advance personal business interests. The report said the NRA had “engaged in a yearslong effort to facilitate the U.S.-based activities of Butina and Alexander Torshin, the former lawmaker.

The NRA called the report “politically motivated and contrived.”

Butina has contended that she was not a spy and that her actions took place out in the open. Her lawyers have said that she was simply a student interested in American politics and better U.S.-Russian relations.

“I love both countries, and I was building peace,” Butina said in an interview with NPR last spring. In the same interview, she said she knew that Torshin was providing the information she gathered to Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She said that she was honored to help and believed that her notes and analysis would be valuable to Russian officials.

Butina also said in the NPR interview that has no concerns about returning to Russia because people who know her “know as a matter of fact that I am not a spy nor do I have any secret information.”

“I don’t think I have any problems or I could have any concerns about my safety,” she said. “I don’t see that happening.”

The case was separate from Mueller’s investigation into ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, and Butina has said she knew nothing about Russia’s efforts to interfere in the presidential election.

____

Tucker reported from Washington.

Associated Press writers Colleen Long and Michael Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report.
 
M

Mark_K

Super Anarchist
1,854
835
Between the mountains and the sea
spankoka said:
No, I think you are insightful here to think this Mark. I hope he can get out of the Gulag soon, but something stinks here. If he wrote bad cheques just as part of his cover-that would be very clever.
Click to expand...
Something is odd, certainly. As a convicted thief he is not the kind of guy we would use. It's a bureaucracy that is always looking to cover its own ass, and if anything goes wrong, a typical condition in Spooksville, it reflects badly on the people who trusted him with an important mission.

So my best guess is he was a sap courier of some kind for maybe another country, potentially not even aware he was being used as a mule, potentially not even aware what country was using him if he was. False flags are common. Remember the Israeli assassination program for Iranian scientists? They convinced the Iranian dissidents they were CIA to get it done.
 
Sol Rosenberg

Sol Rosenberg

Girthy Member
96,259
13,400
Earth
badlatitude said:
THis was an embarrassing moment for the United States.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A tantalizing chapter in Russia’s efforts to collect intelligence on American politics came to a close on Friday as a woman who worked as a covert agent was released from prison to be returned to her home country.

Maria Butina, a gun rights activist who sought to infiltrate conservative U.S. political groups and promote Russia’s agenda around the time that Donald Trump rose to power, left a low-security facility in Tallahassee, Florida and boarded a plane home to Moscow. She had been in custody since her arrest in July 2018.

Butina, a former American University graduate student, pleaded guilty last December to conspiring to act as an unregistered agent for Russia. She admitted that she and a former Russian lawmaker worked to leverage contacts in the National Rifle Association to pursue back channels to American conservatives during the 2016 presidential campaign, when Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton.

She violated U.S. law because she did not report those efforts to the Justice Department, which requires the registration of lobbyists and others in the U.S. who do the bidding of foreign governments. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison but received credit for time already served.

Her lawyers said Friday that she was not a spy and that the case had nothing to do with espionage or election interference. They cast the crime as more technical than substantive.

“As the government acknowledged, all of her activity in the United States was, in and of itself, legal but for her failure to file a notice with the Attorney General, an obligation prosecutors acknowledged she was unaware of,” her attorneys, Robert Driscoll and Alfred Carry, said in a statement. “For violating this notice requirement, she pleaded guilty and was sentenced.”

The Butina case captivated public attention because it unfolded around the same time as special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, even though the two probes were entirely separate. It also led to scrutiny of the political dealings of the powerful NRA and underscored the variety of tools at Russia’s disposal as it looks to gain a foothold in American institutions.

A report last month from Sen. Ron Wyden , an Oregon Democrat, alleged that the NRA acted as a “foreign asset” for Russia in the run-up to the election, and that NRA insiders provided access to the American political system to advance personal business interests. The report said the NRA had “engaged in a yearslong effort to facilitate the U.S.-based activities of Butina and Alexander Torshin, the former lawmaker.

The NRA called the report “politically motivated and contrived.”

Butina has contended that she was not a spy and that her actions took place out in the open. Her lawyers have said that she was simply a student interested in American politics and better U.S.-Russian relations.

“I love both countries, and I was building peace,” Butina said in an interview with NPR last spring. In the same interview, she said she knew that Torshin was providing the information she gathered to Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She said that she was honored to help and believed that her notes and analysis would be valuable to Russian officials.

Butina also said in the NPR interview that has no concerns about returning to Russia because people who know her “know as a matter of fact that I am not a spy nor do I have any secret information.”

“I don’t think I have any problems or I could have any concerns about my safety,” she said. “I don’t see that happening.”

The case was separate from Mueller’s investigation into ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, and Butina has said she knew nothing about Russia’s efforts to interfere in the presidential election.

____

Tucker reported from Washington.

Associated Press writers Colleen Long and Michael Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report.
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