re: #33 ericblair

We’re going to have to see what the actual story is, here. If she implicates the Russian government, her life isn’t worth a pelmeni fart if she goes home.

While I agree we need to wait and see what the actual story is, I don’t believe it is the case that she needs to remain silent to avoid angering the Russian spy agencies.

She is and was a professional spy, who came to do a particular job of infiltrating and inducing Republicans to personally commit doing acts that are to Russia’s benefits and to further expose those Republicans to being used by other Russian agents to do their bidding (do what we want or we’ll expose how much money you’ve taken).

Although some of the actions she took were illegal in the US they aren’t something the Russians are going to be either embarrassed by or and I doubt she has any information that would reveal any Russian spy secrets.

On the other hand, it is slightly embarrassing for the Russian spy agencies and for President Putin to have a spy being left in an American prison. It implies that the Russians aren’t able to protect their own people.

For me, it’s a reasonable scenario for Maria Butina to have reached a plea deal where she confirms everything the FBI already know, confirms that the actions she took were designed to corrupt Republicans, and that she was successful in those attempts.

Assuming that’s the case and that the plea deal was for time served, or for a few months more imprisonment, I can’t see why she wouldn’t have a heroines reception (away from the cameras) when she returned to Russia.

She accomplished her mission of deeply corrupting the US government, and didn’t reveal any information that wasn’t already known. What’s for the Russian secret services to be annoyed by?