A Russian woman accused of being a secret agent has pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to act as an unregistered foreign agent, after making a plea deal with US officials.
Maria Butina, 30, admitted in court to attempting to infiltrate the American gun rights movement in order to gather intelligence on conservative political groups, following the election of Donald Trump.
Butina “operated as a Kremlin agent as she befriended National Rifle Association leaders and influential conservatives”, Time reports, before she was arrested in July.
The Washington Post says Butina admitted to “unofficial lines of communication with Americans having influence over US politics”, and that she had reported to “a person fitting the description of sanctioned Russian central banker Alexander Torshin”.
Butina’s case “comes at a time of intense scrutiny over contact between Russians and the Trump campaign,” CNN reports, “but there is no indication (she) has been of central interest to Special Counsel Robert Mueller” who is leading the Russia investigation.