MOSCOW -- When Maria Butina arrived in Moscow from Siberia in 2011 to launch a Russian version of the National Rifle Association, her shooting range coach said she didn't even know how to fire a weapon.
She learned fast, but her far-fetched bid to liberalize gun rights in Russia flamed out. By the time she arrived in Washington in 2014 to network with the NRA, she was peddling a Russian gun-rights movement that was already dead.
Fellow gun enthusiasts and arms industry officials described to The Associated Press the strange trajectory of a Russian gun lobby project that appeared doomed from the start -- with President Vladimir Putin among its many opponents.
U.S. court papers suggest the movement was a ruse, allowing Butina and influential patron Alexander Torshin to infiltrate the NRA and pursue covert Russian back channels to American conservatives as Donald Trump rose to power.
Butina, 29, has been jailed since July on charges of working as an undeclared foreign agent.
A federal judge in Washington on Monday blasted U.S. prosecutors and defense attorneys during a hearing in which the defense sought to have Butina set free on bail pending trial.
In ordering continued detention for Butina, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said Butina remained a serious flight risk.
Chutkan also imposed a gag order after slamming prosecutors for their mistaken claim in court filings that Butina traded sex for access, and her defense for repeated public statements that the judge said could bias potential jurors.
Butina has pleaded innocent after being indicted July 17 on charges of conspiracy to act and failing to register as an agent of a foreign government. Her defense said she was merely networking to develop relationships with Americans. She is
