Russian state media outlets seem unsure how to explain now-admitted foreign agent Maria Butina's U.S. exploits to the audience, recently showing pictures of her looking considerably less glamorous prior to living in the U.S. and suggesting perhaps she settled abroad in pursuit of personal sexual conquest.
Russian state television and government officials appear to be deeply concerned about the information Butina has provided to U.S. authorities ...
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In point of fact, Russian state media seems to be preparing the public for upcoming revelations of a sexual nature, openly comparing Maria Butina with Anna Chapman, who was arrested along with nine other agents in 2010, all of whom were exchanged for four spies held by Moscow. (Among them was Sergei Skripal, subsequently the object of an alleged Russian assassination attempt.)
The thrust of the Russian coverage seems to be that Butina fancied herself a spy and seductress without actually being one, but her parents’ evasive answers were not much help building that case.
Channel One host Malakhov asked Maria Butina’s father about his daughter’s means of support in America. Valery Butin reluctantly admitted: “She had influential acquaintances who recognized her abilities and were helping her financially.” Butin deflected additional questions about the identities of his daughter’s “influential” supporters, adding: “Someone snitched on her.”
Malakhov followed up with an unconventional theory about Butina’s attempted infiltration of the GOP: “What if her intentions were purely sexual? Couldn’t that be the case? Some people like to sleep with famous athletes and some with politicians. She came there and wanted to meet them, that’s all.”
Maria Butina’s former friends and colleagues provided the Russian state-TV program with photos from her past that revealed a mousy brown mullet and frumpy attire before her redheaded makeover and glamorous photo-sessions with various weapons.
The admitted agent of influence drastically changed her appearance in the run-up to her exploits in the United States, leading to the impression that she was being groomed a little like the protagonist played by Jennifer Lawrence in the film Red Sparrow.
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Maria Butina’s former colleague at the Public Chamber Council of Altai Krai, Pavel Tulin, said he wasn’t surprised by her arrest. Tulin speculated that prior to her apprehension, Butina may have been recorded bragging about being a super-agent of the Russian intelligence agencies (SVR, GRU/GU or the FSB), whether or not that was truly the case. “Now she’s paying the price for whatever she blabbed about,” he added.
Maria Butina’s ‘Red Sparrow’ Makeover Revealed on Russian TV (Daily Beast)