Shortly after landing in Moscow, Maria Butina was quizzed about her ordeal in US jail. The gun activist said one of the toughest things to do was to watch a smear campaign against her on American TV and see the guards laughing.
Butina, who spent months in a US jail for failing to properly register as a foreign agent, landed in Moscow on Saturday. While en-route from Sheremetyevo airport, she told RT that “it was especially frightening, when I was sitting in prison and seeing how they chose the scariest photos of me to air on the news.”
They made shows on TV about it. I couldn’t even turn it off. I was forced to watch that.
During that time, Butina said, the guards “laughed and watched along. It was very hard to bear.”
Many American outlets parroted unsubstantiated claims that Butina had traded sex for political favors. Government prosecutors later admitted that this was not the case – but news networks made little effort to correct their egregious smears.
One of the things that gave her strength, Butina recalled, was news of support that was brought by Russian diplomats. They were “a breath of fresh air amidst the horrors.”
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