Maria Butina, who became friends with Senator Chris Coons and other conservative oligarchs at the NRA sponsored National Prayer Breakfast was once part of Russia’s wide-ranging Russian effort to influence U.S. politics.
Arrest by the FBI in July 2018, Butina spent 15 months in a federal prison and was deported in October 2019.
After returning to Russia, she worked for RT, that nation’s propaganda network, and was elected to the Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament.