Free Maria Butina

If Maria Butina was indeed an agent of the Kremlin, as the F.B.I. alleges, she was not good at hiding it. Butina, who is currently jailed without bail, has found herself at the center of the latest twist in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing Russia investigation. Far from maintaining cloak-and-dagger secrecy as she infiltrated the NRA and GOP circles prior to the 2016 election, Butina blogged about her experiences and posted reflections and snapshots on Twitter, Facebook and the Russian social media network VK.com.

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?

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.

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, 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.

Classmates at AU agreed that Butina put in long hours at the library working on assignments. She told fellow students that she hoped to get a job in cybersecurity but was worried her nationality could pose barriers. Butina completed her own schoolwork, maintaining a 4.0 grade-point average.

In May, Butina walked across the stage at the AU graduation in a blue gown, smiling slightly, her red hair tucked beneath her mortarboard.

Almost exactly two months later, she was arrested.

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So, a Russian citizen attending graduate school in the USA is somehow a Russian spy because she openly  favors and advocates for her homeland, Russia?

There is a connection to President Trump because she attended the national prayer breakfast where Trump was giving a speech?

Not every Russian in the United States is a spy, anymore than every American in Russia is a spy.

We really have to get some better counterintelligence guys, and get the FBI out of politics.