Imprisoned Russian Agent Released From Jail

MOSCOW (AP) – Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman says Maria Butina, who returned to Moscow on Saturday after serving a sentence in the United States for being a covert agent, is a victim of entrenched anti-Russian attitudes. “This is what, unfortunately, the previous U.S. administration started – trying to destroy the bilateral relationship,” Maria Zakharova told reporters at Sheremetyevo airport after Butina arrived. Since the election of President Donald Trump, Russian officials have consistently blamed troubled relations on so-called “Russophobia” carried over from the administration of President Barack Obama. Butina, 30, admitted that she and a former Russian lawmaker worked to leverage contacts in the National Rifle Association to pursue back channels to American conservatives. “She really did no harm to anybody. She’s just a girl, she’s just a young woman. She tried to invest her youth, if you wish, her gift, her talent, into people-to-people contacts,” Zakhar