- The Washington Post
Before her arrest as an alleged Russian agent, Maria Butina’s proud defense of her homeland drew notice at American University
by
Rosalind S. Helderman,
Moriah Balingit,
Shane Harris and
Tom HamburgerJuly 25 at 10:07 PM
Maria Butina, 29, founded a Russian group called the Right to Bear Arms. On July 16 she was charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of Russia. (Patrick Martin/The Washington Post)
On a campus full of ambitious students aiming to land influential U.S. government and policy jobs, Maria Butina cut an unusual profile.
It wasn’t just the outspoken conservative politics of the auburn-haired Russian woman that drew the attention of other graduate students at American University. There was also her almost zealous embrace of her homeland.
Butina’s cellphone case was emblazoned with a famous photograph of Russian President Vladimir Putin riding shirtless on a horse. She would buy friends rounds of vodka at Russia House, the Dupont Circle restaurant popular with the Russian diplomatic set, sometimes challenging male friends to down horseradish-infused shots. She bragged to classmates that she had worked for the Russian government.
Butina’s
arrest last week on charges that she was acting as an unregistered Russian agent and
allegations that she has ties to Russian intelligence rattled those who knew her at
American University, where she spent two years in the global security program at the School of International Service.
Wouldn’t a Russian agent have been more covert, many at the school now wonder, and have worked to keep her Kremlin advocacy under wraps?
[‘She was like a novelty’: How alleged Russian agent Maria Butina gained access to elite conservative circles]
“It’s sort of disbelief,” said one person who knew Butina at AU, describing the campus reaction. “Can you imagine you just moved to D.C. for school from, like, rural Pennsylvania and you find out a couple months later you’re sitting next to a Russian spy?”
Maria Butina poses in a photo she posted on a Russian social media page in May, about a week after receiving her master’s degree from American University.
To others, however, her indictment on federal charges validated their unsettling suspicions.
Butina’s embrace of Russia was so public that people affiliated with AU worried about possible links to the Kremlin and alerted school officials during her tenure there
, according to three people familiar with the conversations. University officials did not appear alarmed and did not appear to take any immediate action, they said.
Mark Story, a spokesman for the university, said he could not comment on Butina’s case but said generally that “education, service and integrity are at the heart of who we are at American University.”
“When concerns about student conduct, safety or security are brought to the university’s attention, we evaluate those concerns and investigate or involve outside partners as appropriate,” Story said.
This portrait of Butina’s stint as a full-time student in Washington is drawn from the accounts of more than a dozen people who have encountered her during the past 18 months. Many spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the ongoing federal investigation into her activities.
During her time on the manicured campus in a tony Northwest Washington neighborhood, Butina embraced the opportunities available to graduate students at the university.
She had a student job with a workspace near the office of former Obama administration national security adviser Susan E. Rice, a visiting research fellow. She co-authored a paper on cybersecurity with two professors at the business school.
Butina in a photo posted on her Facebook page in January 2017. That month, she attended Donald Trump’s inauguration.
She studied cybersecurity policy at the School of International Service:PutinTrollFace:, which prides itself on drawing students from around the world for a program designed to educate future global leaders. One person affiliated with the program noted that the school is known for attracting well-connected foreigners, many of whom work for their home country’s embassy while enrolled.
Roen Agdeppa, a rising sophomore who represents the school in the AU student senate, said students are worried the school will now be linked to the ripped-from-a-spy-novel allegations about Butina.
“It taints our prestige as a university,” Agdeppa said.
Butina, now 29, pursued several advanced degrees in Russia before arriving in the United States, including master’s degrees in political science and education and a doctorate,, according to biographies she posted online.
During that time, she became a well-known personality in Russia as an advocate for loosening the country’s restrictive gun laws.
“She is a charismatic leader,” said Dmitry Gubanov, a website designer in Moscow and friend of Butina.
Starting in 2014, she began traveling to the United States to attend National Rifle Association meetings and other gatherings of conservative leaders, often acting as an aide to Russian central banker Alexander Torshin.
Along the way, Butina managed to have brief encounters with Republican presidential candidates, including Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, then-Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Donald Trump — part of a scheme to cultivate access to Republican leaders and promote the Kremlin’s views, prosecutors now allege.
Butina with Russian central banker Alexander Torshin at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington in February 2017.
Federal investigators found evidence that Butina and an American colleague discussed the risks of her traveling on a tourist visa and ways she could remain in the United States, according to court papers. The description of the American matches that of Republican political operative Paul Erickson, with whom Butina’s attorney has said she was romantically involved.
After allegedly consulting Erickson, Butina sought a student visa, and in August 2016 she arrived in Washington to begin her studies at American University.
Prosecutors claimed in court papers last week that her attendance at AU was Butina’s cover while she was continuing to work to promote Russian government interests.
But Robert N. Driscoll, Butina’s attorney, said that she was not a Russian agent and that her interest in the AU program was genuine.
He said she was eager to be closer to Erickson and was winding down her gun rights activities in Russia.
She also believed that an American graduate degree would help her make a career change into business, perhaps with a focus on cryptocurrency, 
he said.
“What was left for her in Russia?” Driscoll said. “America was looking pretty good.”
The AU program also gave Butina the opportunity to be near powerful figures — and those aspiring to be.
Robert Driscoll, an attorney for Butina, speaks outside federal court in Washington on July 18. (Yuri Gripas/Bloomberg News)
grassroots
but still 
at some of the brazen shyt they can pull off.
