Maria Butina, the Russian woman accused of working as an unregistered foreign agent, encouraged pro-gun demonstrations in the U.S. as early as 2014, according to messages provided to NPR.
Butina's work has been linked to Russia's attack on the 2016 election, but people who know her say she began trying to make her mark inside America years before.
NPR examined thousands of people who make up Butina's Facebook network, and reached out to a sample of more than two hundred individuals.
Her connections included National Rifle Association officials, gun lobbyists, a Justice Department staffer, a congressional aide, the top organizer of the National Prayer Breakfast and an executive with the Outdoor Channel. She was even friends with the top senior enlisted leader at the Navy's West Coast center for handling nuclear weapons.
Her collection of Facebook friends told the story of a woman who has been working for years to change minds on gun rights first in her home country and then in the U.S.
Today, Butina is in jail ahead of her trial on charges of alleged conspiracy and allegedly serving as a foreign agent. Prosecutors argue – and a federal judge has agreed – that she poses too great a risk of trying to flee back to Russia.
Butina's attorney argues that the government has badly over-hyped her case.
Neither the Justice Department nor Butina's lawyer could comment for this story because of a gag order[1] imposed by a federal judge.
Straight outta Siberia
People who knew Butina in her home country marked her early as driven. She also was unusual in another way: An enthusiastic shooter and a campaigner for gun rights in a nation with no 2nd Amendment.
"The practical
