BARNAUL (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th October, 2019) Russian national Maria Butina, who has been released from prison in the United States after serving an 18-month term, has arrived in the Russian city of Barnaul, where she was greeted by her relatives.
On October 25, Butina was released from a prison in Florida and was deported to Russia. On Saturday morning, her plane landed in Moscow, where her father, Valery Butin, and spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, met her at the Sheremetyevo Airport.
On Tuesday, at 05:11 local time (22:11 GMT on Monday), Butina and her father landed in Barnaul. Maria's mother and her grandmother met them at the Barnaul airport.
"We are happy to be home, but we are very tired from all the attention," Valery Butin told Sputnik after the Moscow-Barnaul flight.
Asked about Butina's future plans and her announced intention to tell Russians about the difficulties they can encounter in the United States, Valery Butin said his daughter "plans to rest and meet with family."
Butina was arrested in mid-2018 in the United States on a single charge of conspiring to act as an unregistered foreign agent in the US. After being held in solitary confinement in a cage not larger than a single car parking lot, Butina pleaded guilty fearing an extended prison term.
Butina has decried the US judicial process for placing her in solitary confinement to force a plea deal before sentencing and refusing to release her on bail.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Butina's indictment is unjustified because she was not tasked to perform any mission on behalf of the Russian government.
