Russia Sends Another Faux Redhead Femme Fatale to Undermine Our Democracy
Maria Butina
Anna Chapman
Russian intelligence officials have done their homework after years of painstaking information gathering on the United States, and their conclusion is this: they're dead certain that American men fall for mousy-looking faux redheads.
Long-time readers of this blog will recall my many posts on the ill-fated Anna Chapman. Sent here as a covert "illegal" agent to penetrate U.S. power circles a decade ago, all she managed to do was to party in Manhattan, get herself caught and deported along with nine other maladroit Russian sleeper agents. Well, lo and behold! There's an Anna copy cat. Name's Maria Butina. Also a chemically inspired carrot top, Maria is in jail, charged with acting as an undeclared agent of Russian intelligence. Her cover was as a gun rights advocate. Sure, Putin would just love to have the Russian population swimming in a sea of assault rifles.
I'll confess that I miss the flamboyant amateur Mata Hara, Anna C., about whom I spewed streams of satirical commentary. But Anna's wallowing in well-deserved obscurity back home now, sliding into middle aged senescence, unmarried, directionless and headed toward some dark Chekovian end. You may have thought I was obsessed with her. Not really. The mean streak in me is simply attracted to fools manipulated by bigger fools to wreak damage on perceived enemies who, in this case - the U.S. of A. - are a lot smarter than the fools think. (Hello Kremlin! This means you!)
Maria Butina, however, provides new fodder for me. O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! The writing muse is back.
The FBI arrested Maria Butina, 29, a few days ago, bringing to a sudden end her game of infiltrating key Republican power centers on an active measures campaign to steer U.S. policy toward Moscow. Posing as a gun rights advocate, Maria was sent here in 2013 to cozy up to the GOP's biggest single funder and malignant necromancer, the National Rifle Association. Her handlers directed her toward U.S. religious right groups as well. Maria even attended a couple of those weird White House-sponsored "National Prayer Breakfasts" (who said the right cling to religion and guns?) with her apparent handler, Alexander Torshin. The latter plays a central role in Russia's kleptocracy, acting as a go-between and fixer for that country's three branches of government: Putin, the Russian mafia, and the intelligence services.
The DOJ indictment reads:
Maria "engaged in a years-long conspiracy to work covertly in the United States as an undeclared agent of the Russian Federation in order to advance the interests of her home country. The plan was calculated, patient, and directed by the Russian Official. The defendant’s covert influence campaign involved substantial planning, international coordination, and preparation. The plan for Butina also required, and she demonstrated, a willingness to use deceit in a visa application to move to the United States and bring the plan to fruition."
The judge advised Maria that she could face 15 years in the slammer, if convicted of all charges.
As part of her cover, Maria enrolled at American University for a master's program in international relations. Trouble was, her active measures activities took too much time for her to focus on her studies. So what does any good spy of loose moral character do? She hooks up with a gullible simpleton twice her age to do her homework for her. This was, you guessed it, an NRA honcho and GOP operative named Paul Erickson. Sex for A's. Well, she's likely not the first to do it. In the same vein, our promiscuous Siberian Mata Hari also offered her all to someone in an unnamed "special interests organization" in order to land a job that would extend her immigration status, according to the Justice Department's indictment. I'll comment later on their sloppy spy tradecraft, which also did Anna Chapman in.
This is the Anna Chapman School of Subterfuge. Even though you look like a grocery clerk at some former collective farm turnip depot in Altai, you ply your feminine wiles with libido-yearning middle-aged has-beens, or never-weres, to achieve the mission directive laid down by Big Brother in Moscow, aka "the Center." Torshin even emailed Maria, "Are your admirers asking for your autographs yet? You have upstaged Anna Chapman."
Maria was a darling at gun conventions, got to ask candidate Trump a question at one of them, became "friends" with many Republican movers and shakers, and even tried to broker a meeting between Trump and Putin (unsuccessfully). She, or her handlers, however, must have sensed Elliot Ness's ghost coming at them. At the time of her arrest, Maria had her bags packed, bank accounts emptied and apartment lease terminated. The Feds struck at the right time. Just as they did with Anna Chapman and her loser cohorts back in 2010.
Now poor little Marischka cools her heels in a federal cell, no longer the GOP's little Russian teacher's pet. Robert Mueller delves deeper into the NRA's finances, which likely include some nicely laundered big bucks from Moscow. Maria is the 26th Russian citizen to be indicted in Russia meddling investigations. She has the distinction of being the first to be arrested. This comes on the heels of Trump's clown act in Helsinki with his FSB case officer. Just before that spectacle, the DOJ indicted 12 Russians on a number of charges, including cyber attacks on the 2016 U.S. elections. Funny how the bread crumb trail from the Kremlin to the White House just keeps growing. Isn't it?
The DOJ indictment alludes to other GOP members conspiring with Russian agents and oligarchs against their country. By the way, this is called treason. Our national security rests in the capable hands of Rod Rosenstein, Bob Mueller and the FBI. Let's hope in the meantime that the other Maria Butina's and their American Quislings don't succeed in inflicting further damage on this country. As for his part, Trump is certainly doing his best.
And as for Maria in her cell, her long locks slowly reverting to brunette, facing a decade and a half in the can, pondering her decision not to stay put on that ex-turnip kolkhoz in Siberia, stay tuned. I got more.