Russian Agent Maria Butina Says Ukraine’s Jewish President Is ‘Reviving Fascism’

Maria Butina's attempts to infiltrate the NRA and Republican political circles as a Russian agent got her an 18-month prison sentence in the United States. 

Back in Russia, it got her a seat in Parliament, where she's become one of the most vocal backers of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, and purveyors of Kremlin misinformation. 

She claims, for example, that the bloody assault on cities including Kyiv is actually a defensive operation to stop a “genocide” of Russian speakers in the country, and she’s been wearing T-shirts and suit jackets decorated with the “Z” symbol that’s painted on the side of Russian tanks and trucks.

She says she witnessed racism while serving a sentence in a U.S. prison, and told VICE News in an interview she “cannot allow this to happen in our brother nation Ukraine.”

Butina grew up in the Siberian city of Barnaul, where she joined a local Rotary Club organization and started getting interested in the United States and its gun culture. Moving to Moscow, she became an aide to Alexander Torshin, a senator and then deputy secretary of Russia's central bank, who was also an advocate for gun rights. She and Torshin traveled to the United States in 2015, where Butina met Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and asked then-candidate Donald Trump a question at a campaign event.

In 2016, she came to Washington, D.C., for a graduate program in international affairs at American University. Soon she was meeting prominent conservatives like NRA head Wayne LaPierre and dating Republican political operative Paul Erickson. But as Trump's possible connections with Russia came under investigation, suspicions arose that Butina was a Russian spy. 

She was arrested in July 2018 and pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as a Russian agent in the U.S. without registering with the Justice Department.

To be clear, in the interview that follows, Butina expresses views that closely adhere to the official Kremlin line. She claims that the Russian military is not at “war” with Ukraine, and has not killed civilians—both of which are easily proved untrue.

VICE News spoke with Butina outside the Russian Parliament building in Moscow.

Tune in to VICE News Tonight on VICE TV at 11 p.m. for more from our teams in Ukraine.

VICE News: Maria, when you voted to recognize the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, were you voting to invade Ukraine?

Maria Butina: First of all, we voted to stop the genocide of Russian-speakers in eastern Ukraine. Unfortunately it was impossible because Ukraine did not want to respond in any way. And as a consequence, we needed this special operation, which I totally support.

You call it a special operation, not an invasion?

Yes, I call it a special operation.

And why not a war?

I call it a special operation because it is a peacekeeping mission, and there is a difference between a war and a special operation, because now the main aim is to save people and stop the genocide which has been taking place in Ukraine for many years. 

I am really surprised that the American side ignores the question about nuclear weapon acquisition by Ukraine. When I heard this from the Ukrainian authorities, you know, many people think it's just a statement, like they say this, but they will not succeed. For me, this question is very serious. So the last straw when deciding whether to use the Russian military was the fact of keeping peace on this planet. Do you understand that the whole world can be destroyed?

This is the main reason why I decided to talk to you today. The sanctions and all other actions that have been taken by the USA and the EU are not the right way to go. I have been struggling for peace for my whole life, for peace between our countries in particular. I was in prison for people's diplomacy.

Today we are trying to establish friendship, but the USA does not want to.

So, if the main aim of the military operation in Ukraine is to save people’s lives, then why have hundreds of civilians already died there?

The Russian military has not killed civilians, and you can find many different videos on the internet. Please don't trust fake news. 

We see videos of how Kharkov, Sumy, Kyiv are being bombed.

The Russian military does not use weapons against the civilians. We are not killers. Our main task is to avoid any harm to the Ukrainians, not conquer their cities, not make them leave their houses. Absolutely not.

But Berdyansk has already been conquered.

The task of the Russian military is to bring peace to Ukraine, so that it can choose itself the legit government. This government, unfortunately, is completely mad. I mean Mr. Zelenskyy and his friends. They got their authority illegally. We want to have a friendly Ukraine near our borders. Friendly to Russia, to the world, a peaceful country. That is why we are talking today about the demilitarization, the de-Nazification of Ukraine, because we are really worried about its direction now.

So Russia wants to overthrow a democratically elected president?

First off, he is an illegitimate president. Secondly, Russia does not overthrow any regimes, and America is definitely not one to judge. Russia's task is to ensure that power in Ukraine is legitimate and elected democratically by its people. And these people should be given the right to vote because actually today this is a junta that seized power and dictates a position that is completely unstable. 

And what they did was actually start reviving fascism, when they again began to use Nazi symbols. After all, we in fact were allies with the United States, and how can you condone the revival of fascism when so little time has passed? 

What fascism are we talking about if the president is Jewish?

The president of Ukraine is also a Russian-speaking person. How then does he allow these opportunities to persecute the Russian-speaking population, forbidding people to speak their language, closing Russian-speaking schools?

You know when I was in prison, during the first few days when I had a piece of paper and the back of the court papers, I wrote that what was happening to me at that moment, when I was being persecuted as a Russian woman for people's diplomacy and peace-building issues, that was exactly the same revival of Nazism that for me is a complete nightmare.

So to protect Russian-speaking people, to achieve peace, Ukrainian citizens must die?

If today in this special operation against our armed forces, Nazi groups just go into battle, there will certainly be victims. Unfortunately, the special operation will bring casualties.

I believe it is very important for us now that negotiations between the Russian and Ukrainian sides take place. These negotiations must be independent of third countries and the parties must achieve mutual peace. It is only possible with the demilitarization and de-Nazification of Ukraine.

More than 6,000 people have been arrested and detained for protesting against this war.

What people detained today are doing doesn't follow Russian law. These are spontaneous demonstrations, which is forbidden. 

Today is a time when the possibility of provocations cannot be ruled out, the possibility of terrorists infiltrating the territory of the Russian Federation cannot be ruled out. Of course, (security) forces will be sent to protect these people. Therefore, it's not possible to go to unsanctioned protests. I think these things are absolutely obvious. Incidentally, the U.S. is doing exactly the same thing.

But now new sanctions are being implemented, SWIFT has been cut off, Nord Stream 2 has been stopped, the ruble is falling. The Russian economy is clearly suffering from this operation. Isn't it time to think about that?

You know, when choosing between a dollar or a ruble and, on the other side of the scale, a person's life, I will always choose a person's life. Therefore, yes, it will be difficult for Russia, but we will protect our own people in any case; we will not abandon our own people.

When a Russian soldier is killed in Ukraine, your “brother nation,” what is he dying for?

To give other people the opportunity to live. War is always very regrettable. But in this case, the special operation is absolutely justified, because there was a genocide. And we can't simply watch how the Russian-speaking population is dying.

I learned a lot from imprisonment in the United States, and the prisoners there with me were mostly Black, and I saw what racism is. And the stories I've heard from them, they're terrible. I cannot allow this to happen in our brother nation Ukraine.

We've reported in eastern Ukraine as well. There was no genocide there.

I think you'd better talk to the residents of eastern Ukraine. They say otherwise. You know, I work with these people, as you do, every day. Evacuated refugees came to my region. There were two women, one of them is pregnant with twins, and she has two more children. Her husband died; he was simply shot by the Ukrainian military.

What is the future of Ukraine?

I believe that Russia and Ukraine should be friends. This is our brother nation. The task of the Russian military personnel is to liberate the cities and demilitarize the territory, so in the future the Ukrainian population will freely make decisions on their own.