A review of Mariia Butina’s prolific social media activity, including Twitter posts, shows that she was dedicated to developing close relationships with numerous senior NRA figures over the past five years. | AP Photo Accused Russian agent says she was twice denied visas to travel to U.S.

Mariia Butina, the Russian gun enthusiast who was accused this week of acting as an illegal foreign agent, said in 2014 that she was twice denied visas to travel to the U.S. and received permission only on her third attempt to go to a National Rifle Association conference.

On April 25, 2014, Butina — who on Wednesday was ordered to be held in jail pending trial — posted to her LiveJournal blog from Indianapolis, where she was attending the NRA’s annual “congress” as the leader of the Right to Bear Arms organization, which advocates looser gun control policies in Russia.


“I only got a visa to the United States for annual NRA meetings on the third try. Before that, I missed these congresses for two years because of the opposition of the American government bureaucracy,” said the post, which includes photos of her with NRA leaders and other attendees.

“Finally, the leadership of the NRA itself [came] to visit us, after which it was possible to prove that I would not stay in the US, and I went there on business,” Butina wrote at the time, referencing a trip to Moscow several months earlier by former NRA President David Keene; a prominent NRA booster and longtime Republican operative, Paul Erickson; and other gun rights luminaries.

POLITICO Playbook newsletter Sign up today to receive the #1-rated newsletter in politics Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Butina’s social media post shows that the U.S. government may have had concerns about her long before prosecutors formally accused her of acting as a foreign agent. That post, along with others reviewed by POLITICO, also offers a window into how Butina used her NRA ties to help establish her first inroads in the United States, where the Justice Department now alleges she waged a clandestine Kremlin “influence operation” to push an unnamed political party, which matches the description of the Republican Party, toward a more pro-Russia stance.

She at times linked to the LiveJournal blog, which was in her native Russian, from her Twitter account.

Butina did not say in her 2014 post whether NRA officials took any actions to help her overcome the U.S. government’s objections to her visa requests. The NRA did not respond to requests for comment about its relationship with Butina. In the past, it has denied wrongdoing — unintentional or otherwise — in connection with its dealings with Russian entities.

Keene did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Erickson could not be reached for comment. His voicemail was full, and he did not respond to a text message seeking comment.

Butina's lawyer, Robert Driscoll, said he could not discuss any details of her case, including her efforts to get a visa and her dealings with NRA officials.

CNN first reported that Butina was twice denied visas.

One person close to the investigation said it was likely that Butina’s formal role in NRA events helped her secure a visa to come to the U.S. for the 2014 conference. “I assume that by providing the destination as being an NRA conference, it helps to get a visa,” the person told POLITICO.

U.S. officials this week alleged that Butina, 29, worked from 2015 until at least February 2017 as a covert Kremlin agent under the direction of a top Russian government official and central banker. The description in court documents matched that of Alexander Torshin, a close associate of President Vladimir Putin.

As part of that effort, prosecutors say, the pair worked to infiltrate a gun rights group, which matches the description of the NRA, and other conservative American organizations in order to establish back-channel lines of communication with influential U.S. political leaders and “penetrate the U.S. national decision-making apparatus to advance the agenda of the Russian Federation,” according to an affidavit by an FBI agent in support of the case.

Butina, who was arrested Sunday and charged Monday, has denied the Justice Department’s allegations, according to Driscoll. She pleaded not guilty Wednesday to federal charges including failing to register as a foreign agent with the Justice Department.

For more than a year, U.S. authorities also have been investigating whether Butina and Torshin were part of a plot to funnel Russian money through the NRA to the Trump campaign as part of the broader influence operation. Since June 2017, FBI agents have had Butina under active surveillance, Driscoll said Wednesday. In court, prosecutors partially confirmed that by introducing into evidence a photograph that they said showed Butina having dinner with a Russian intelligence agent several months ago.

A review of Butina’s prolific social media activity, including Twitter posts, shows that she was dedicated to developing close relationships with numerous senior NRA figures over the past five years. And the Justice Department released emails and other communications in which she discussed using her close ties to a guns group as a way to influence U.S. politics.

In her LiveJournal post from 2014, Butina said she attended the NRA convention to represent her Right to Bear Arms organization “as part of the exchange of experience and international cooperation.”

Two weeks later, she told the conservative TownHall publication that she got her visa just days before the NRA event started and that she attended the annual NRA Women's Leadership Luncheon as a guest of former NRA President Sandy Froman. Butina said she participated in other meetings and events as a guest of former NRA President Keene, including attending the Golden Ring of Freedom ceremony and speaking to the elite group of NRA donors who give $1 million or more. She also was given “the rare privilege” of ringing the NRA Liberty Bell at the Ring of Freedom event, calling out, “For the rights to arms for citizens around the world,” she recounted later in a tweet. Froman did not return calls and emails seeking comment.

After Indianapolis, Butina told her blog followers, she planned to attend “an exchange of experience in the Washington office of NRA and many other interesting things.” She tweeted about the visit, posting a photo of herself and Keene in front of the organization’s glass headquarters.

The plan to use a guns group in the U.S. for the benefit of Russia began before that, according to court documents and interviews.

By 2011, Torshin had begun cultivating relationships with NRA officials and attending every annual NRA convention in the U.S. and other events, often as a special guest of NRA leadership. That year, Butina launched her gun rights group, saying she learned to use firearms while hunting bears and wolves in her native Siberia.

She soon achieved notoriety, in Russia and beyond, by being one of the few people — especially women — pushing handgun rights in a country that officially discouraged it.

In 2013, the NRA’s Keene, its president until earlier that year, was an honored guest at a conference of Butina’s Right to Bear Arms organization. Prosecutors say it was on that trip in November 2013 that Butina met an unnamed U.S. person whose description matches that of Erickson and began a long and close relationship that would become a central focus of her work as a Russian agent in the U.S.

By then, prosecutors now say, Butina was a “special assistant” on the covert influence operation working with the Russian who matches Torshin’s description.

On the 2014 trip to the U.S., Butina posed for photos and gave then-NRA President James Porter a gift from her organization, she noted in her LiveJournal posts, saying, “Mission accomplished.”

Butina would go on to attend the annual NRA conventions in 2015 and 2016, posting online and being photographed with Froman, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre and other organization leaders, and Republican stalwarts like Rick Santorum and Tom Delay. At the 2015 convention in Tennessee, she spoke Russian with Scott Walker, she said on social media. Walker’s “Our American Revival” political committee also posted several photos of Walker, Butina and Torshin on its website. That July, Butina flew to Waukesha, Wisconsin, to attend Walker’s launch of his presidential bid. She posted photos of that event on Facebook and Twitter too. When Walker’s campaign fizzled, she focused her attention on the Trump campaign, according to her social media posts and Justice Department documents.

In December 2015, the NRA sent another delegation to Moscow to meet with Butina’s group. Keene went on that trip, too, along with then-NRA First Vice President Pete Brownell, who soon became NRA president, and Joe Gregory, chairman of NRA’s Golden Ring of Freedom, according to tweets from Torshin, other Russian officials and public records. An NRA committee member and surrogate, then-Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke, also attended, and later disclosed in public reports that Right to Bear Arms paid $6,000 of his travel expenses.

Before the 2016 NRA convention in Louisville, Kentucky, Butina and Torshin worked through intermediaries to try to arrange a “backdoor” channel between Putin and Trump, claiming that Torshin was acting at the behest of the Russian president, according to emails handed over to Senate investigators and published by The New York Times. That effort was rejected by the Trump campaign, but Torshin met briefly with Donald Trump Jr. at a campaign-related event. A lawyer for President Trump’s eldest son told reporters that the meeting was brief and inconsequential.

Butina later accompanied Erickson to Trump's inauguration, including at least one VIP event attended by other Russians, according to media reports.

The FBI agent’s affidavit said that after infiltrating the gun-rights group and other organizations, Butina reported back “to Moscow the results of the various encounters with the U.S. politicians and political candidates.”

The effort, the agent wrote, also appeared to involve more than just Butina and her Russian contact.

The plan, FBI Special Agent Kevin Helson wrote, also involved the help of others in the form of “substantial planning, international coordination, and preparation.”