Russia’s Foreign Ministry plans to deliver another demarche to the US Department of State over new allegations concerning Russian citizen Maria Butina detained in the US, the ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.
“We resent the US Justice Department’s attempts to describe the visits of Russian consular officials to Butina and our diplomatic note demanding that her legitimate rights be respected, as evidence proving that the Russian is somehow linked to our government,” she said.
“We will continue to visit our citizen on a regular basis, as well as provide her with the necessary assistance,” Zakharova stressed. “We will deliver another demarche to the US Department of State over US state agencies’ allegations in Butina’s case,” she added.
According to the Russian diplomat, Moscow demands that Washington “drop the groundless prosecution of the Russian national who is a political prisoner.” “All the reasonable forces should unite and support the request to free Butina and let her return home,” she said.
Zakharova also noted that “the US has been doing everything to prove that its actions are legitimate but legal grounds are disappearing with every passing day, while in many respects, there were no legal grounds from the very start.” “Here, we see politics prevail over law and common sense,” she concluded.