Russian national Maria Butina, who was arrested in the US in 2018 for espionage and deported to Russia a year later, on Wednesday said that she was happy that lawyer Paul Erickson, her ex-boyfriend who was sentenced for wire fraud and money laundering, was pardoned by US President Donald Trump but mentioned that Russian nationals serving time in US prisons also deserved clemency
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th January, 2021) Russian national Maria Butina, who was arrested in the US in 2018 for espionage and deported to Russia a year later, on Wednesday said that she was happy that lawyer Paul Erickson, her ex-boyfriend who was sentenced for wire fraud and money laundering, was pardoned by US President Donald Trump but mentioned that Russian nationals serving time in US prisons also deserved clemency.
On his last day in office, Trump pardoned 73 people, including Erickson, his former adviser, Steve Bannon, former Uber executive Anthony Levandowski and many others. On Tuesday, Butina asked Trump to pardon Russian national Bogdana Osipova, who left the US with her child without her former husband's consent and got arrested when she returned in 2017. Osipova was sentenced to seven years in prison for child abduction and extortion.
"I am very happy for Paul, on the one hand. He is a person with whom I have a common past, which, fortunately, has remained in the past. But I want to say that he deserved to spend six months in jail as he really had a fraud case. At the same time, Trump had the full opportunity to pardon our [Russian nationals] Viktor Bout, our Konstantin Yaroshenko, who has been in terrible conditions in American prisons for about ten years. He could pardon and I asked for it Bogdana Osipova, and return her to her three children, Oleg Nikitin," Butina told Sputnik.
According to Butina, who is now a member of Russia's Civic Chamber, the Russians deserved a pardon due to "their suffering and lack of guilt." Butina mentioned that Trump's decision to pardon only US passport holders shows prejudice against Russians.
"I am glad that people close to politicians and to him [Trump] personally were pardoned, but I consider it unfair that our citizens are discriminated," Butina added.
Russian businessman Viktor Bout was arrested in Thailand at the US' request in 2008 as a result of an operation of the American special services and handed over to the US. Bout already has served half of a 25-year sentence in an American prison on charges of conspiracy to murder US citizens and financially support terrorism. Yaroshenko, the Russian pilot, was arrested in Liberia in May 2010 on suspicion of drug trafficking. A year later, he was extradited to the US and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Nikitin was arrested in 2019 for trying to evade US sanctions.
Earlier on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia "would prefer" to see Bout and Yaroshengo among the people pardoned by Trump.
