MOSCOW, December 25. /TASS/. The family of Russian national Maria Butina, arrested in the United States on charges of conspiracy and acting as a foreign agent, needs about 30 mln rubles ($436,000) to pay her lawyer’s fees, Maria’s father Valery Butin told a Russian TV show on Tuesday.
"The debt amounts to about 30 mln rubles at the moment. It is indeed a huge debt. The case is politicized, this is why the fees are that high but the lawyer did not abandon the case in July and has been actually working for free since then," Butin said.
According to him, the Maria Butina Fund raising money for the Russian was established at the initiative of her lawyer Robert Driscoll.
"He understands that… the family does not have the money… Donations come from people whom Maria met in the United States, and also from common people who understand that she is being treated unfairly," Valery Butin explained.
Butina case
Maria Butina, 30, was arrested in Washington DC on July 15, right before the Helsinki meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump. The US Department of Justice said that she was suspected of acting "as an agent of Russia inside the United States by developing relationships with US persons and infiltrating organizations having influence in American politics, for the purpose of advancing the interests of the Russian Federation."
On July 21, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov demanded in a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo that Butina be released as soon as possible. He also slammed all charges brought against her as fabricated.
On December 13, Butina pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the US law governing foreign agents operating in the country. The next court hearing has been scheduled for February 12.
