In a show of defiance, Russian agent Maria Butina chalked her crime of helping Russia infiltrate GOP circles up to a paperwork error when she landed back in her motherland on Saturday.
“I pleaded guilty to non-registration as a foreign agent. [I’m] a person who did not do anything illegal, did not take any money, there were no victims, there wasn’t even a person to conspire with,” Butina told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
“According to my documents, I did not register before hosting friendship dinners with an American citizen, non-registration is the only crime in my documents,” she said, claiming she felt pressured to sign the indictments against her.
“Ten days before I signed all the indictments, I was again put in a solitary confinement cell,” Butina added. “This is intentional, this is done to break you as a person.”
Butina, 30, was released back to Moscow Friday after serving an 18-month jail sentence in a Florida prison for conspiring with her Republican operative boyfriend, Paul Erickson, to cozy up the NRA and promote Russian interests.
She told reporters upon her arrival at the Sheremetyevo International Airport — where she was greeted by her father, holding a bouquet of flowers — that she was questioned by the FBI for 52 total hours.
“They started by asking if I worked for the Russian government, and I straight up said no,” Butina said.



