Butina arrested back in Moscow: "I suppose they wanted to break my will"

Following her deportation from the US, Russian Butina, convicted of illegal agent activity, is back in Moscow - and has made serious allegations against the US judiciary. "That was probably the worst experience of my life," said the 30-year-old Russia Today.

She spoke of "torture" given the fact that she had been in custody for 117 days in solitary confinement. "I suppose they wanted to break my will." What happened to her definitely shows that America is losing its justice system, Butina claimed - without going further into detention conditions for people in Russia. She kept saying that she had nothing to owe.

The Russian woman entered the United States a few years ago on a student visa and enrolled in Washington. However, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) considered the study to be a cover for their agency work. Butina was arrested in July 2018 and put to remand. Later, she was sentenced to 18 months in prison for illegal agent activity in Washington.

Butina herself had admitted to having worked under the guidance of a Moscow government official in the United States. Her activities were therefore also in the period of the US presidential campaign 2016. Butina, who was committed as a weapons rights activist, is said to have inter alia tried to infiltrate the US arms lobby National Rifle Association (NRA). The NRA is close to the Republicans of US President Donald Trump.

Devastating conditions in Russian penal camps

Butina announced that she wanted to engage in Russia as a weapons rights activist and also use for people who are unjustifiably in prison. She will talk about the conditions of her imprisonment in the US because a country should be judged by how it treats its prisoners. "They treat their prisoners very badly," Butina told Russia Today.

The interview did not mention that the Russian judicial system has been criticized for arbitrary judgments and commercial judges internationally for years. Human rights defenders and former prisoners also criticize the devastating conditions in Russian penal camps. We are talking about torture and life-threatening hygienic conditions.

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The Russian government had spoken in Butina case that the allegations against them were invented. Back in Moscow, Butina also asserted her innocence: "I was just a student who believed in creating peace between the two countries," she said. She pleaded guilty in court to avoid an unjustified maximum sentence of 15 years imprisonment "in the midst of anti-Russian hysteria."

The 30-year-old was released from the federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida, on Friday and handed over to the US police and customs authority ICE. She was then deported to Russia. In tears, she hugged her father at Sheremetyevo airport. According to Butina's statements, the US imposed an entry ban against them.