LOC21:42
18:42 GMT
WASHINGTON, Dec 13 (KUNA) -- A Russian woman arrested on charges of being a foreign agent, pleaded guilty to conspiring with a senior Russian official to infiltrate the US' conservative party in favor of the Kremlin from 2015 until her arrest in July 2017.
Maria Butina, 30, sought to influence US policy leading up to the 2016 presidential election. She agreed to cooperate with US authorities in a plea deal with investigators in exchange for less prison time.
Butina had posed as a gun's rights activist and attended American University as a graduate student in 2016. She worked to develop relationships with American politicians through the connections she made in the National Rifle Association, a highly influential non-profit organization.
In court, Butina's lawyer argued that she was merely a student interested in improving relations between the US and Russia.
Her sentencing will not be until February when she could face up to five years in prison and then will likely be deported back to Russia.
Butina is the first Russian national convicted of seeking to influence US policy before the 2016 election. But her case is separate from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. (end)
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