On August 4, a Russian court U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner to nine years in a Russian penal colony on drug-smuggling charges.
Griner had been arrested in February at a Moscow airport with hashish oil cartridges in her luggage. Her lawyers have appealed the sentence, and talks are under way to free Griner and other U.S. citizens jailed in Russia via a prisoner swap.
On August 17, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, turned his attention to Russian citizens who have been held in U.S. prisons when asked about prisoner swaps with the United States.
They include Konstantin Yaroshenko, serving 20 years in a U.S. prison on drug smuggling charges. In April, the U.S. exchanged Yaroshenko for former U.S. Marine , serving nine years assaulting Russian police.
Calling for Griner’s release, his detention as nightmarish and Russia’s legal system as “medieval.”
For his part, Antonov argued that Russian citizens are unfairly being hunted by the United States, with some suffering "hardships" tantamount to torture:
But that characterization is false, and there is no equivalence with Griner's case. Moreover, Butina at first denied being tortured in U.S. detention, only reversing herself after being released and deported.
Butina was a Russian agent. In December 2018, she to conspiracy and acting under the direction of the Russian government. A U.S. federal court sentenced her to 18 months in prison in April 2019. Butina was released in October 2019 and sent back to Russia after serving 15 months.
Media portrayals of Butina as a “spy” have skewed perceptions of the charges against her. Prosecutors said Butina ”was not a spy” or intelligence officer “in the traditional sense of trying to gain access to classified information to send back to her home country.”
Rather, she under under "18 U.S. Code Section 951 - Agents of foreign governments," has been described as “espionage lite.” It targets "espionage-like or clandestine behavior or an otherwise provable connection to an intelligence service, or information gathering or procurement-type activity on behalf of a foreign government."
Butina had worked to cultivate ties with U.S. political groups and individuals — primarily conservatives and the National Rifle Association (NRA) — on behalf of Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of Russia’s Central Bank and a Russian senator whom Spanish investigators Russian mafia activity.
The U.S. Treasury Department in April 2018, identifying him as a Russian government official “who benefit[s] from the Putin regime and play[s] a key role in advancing Russia’s malign activities.”
Torshin and Butina worked to establish ties between the NRA and a Russian version of that organization which Butina set up in 2011 called “Right to Bear Arms.”
that connection was used to help establish a “back channel” that “could be used by the Russian Federation to penetrate the U.S. national decision-making apparatus to advance the agenda of the Russian Federation.”
Butina was in contact with individuals believed to be “Russian intelligence operatives,” prosecutors claimed in :
“The FBI has acquired email and other electronic evidence documenting Butina’s work on behalf of Russia, including taskings, reporting, and attempts to be ‘incognito.’ The evidence establishes that Butina’s purpose for coming to the United States was to work on behalf of the Russian Federation. Further, numerous witnesses will testify about the influence activities described in the complaint.”
The affidavit supporting the charges against Butina lists more than 30 instances in which Butina received direction or took action in the influence operation.
Although Russian President Vladimir denied knowing Butina (some evidence ), and she was not prominent in Russia, upon returning home, Butina at Russian state-broadcaster RT. There, she defended the jailing of Russian opposition activists.
She about her own experiences in prison, and has used her position to advocate for Russian prisoners abroad. She also appeared unwilling to address allegations of grave abuses in Russian prisons, including torture and rape.
In April 2021, an “ambush interview” with jailed Russian opposition activist Alexey Navlany, who was on hunger strike after being denied medical care. In that hostile interview, Butina denied Navalny’s ailments, his prison conditions were better than what one would find in a regional hotel.
Russia’s security services have to Navalny’s August 2020 poisoning with a military-grade nerve agent on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow. After receiving medical care abroad, Navalny was immediately upon returning to Russia.