Moscow says Butina’s case did come up between Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and US secretary of state Mike Pompeo

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The US version of what the top American and Russian diplomats discussed in their most recent telephone call made no mention of the Russian woman arrested by American authorities and suspected of being a covert Kremlin agent – even though Moscow says her case came up in the conversation.

How Maria Butina, accused Russian spy, worked her way into top US circles Read more

The state department’s description on Sunday of the call between the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, and the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, mentioned “a broad range of issues”, including Syria, counter-terrorism, dialogue between US and Russian businesses and “diplomatic access”.

But Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday that Lavrov complained in the call about the arrest of Maria Butina on “fabricated charges” and spoke about “the need for her early release”.

Butina is accused of working with Alexander Torshin, a high-powered Russian official who has close ties to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and served as his interpreter at various Washington events, and two unidentified US citizens in an attempt to infiltrate the National Rifle Association and influence US policy toward Russia.

Reuters reported on Sunday that Butina had wider high-level contacts in Washington than previously known, taking part in 2015 meetings between Torshin and two senior officials at the Federal Reserve and treasury department.

The meetings, revealed by several people familiar with the sessions and a report from the Center for the National Interest, a Washington thinktank that arranged them, involved Stanley Fischer, Fed vice-chairman at the time, and Nathan Sheets, then treasury undersecretary for international affairs.

Butina traveled to the US in April 2015 with Torshin, then the Russian central bank deputy governor, and they took part in separate meetings with Fischer and Sheets to discuss US-Russian economic relations during the Obama administration.

Fischer, in an email, confirmed he met Torshin and his interpreter. While he could not recall details, Fischer said the conversation involved “the state of the Russian economy” and Torshin’s new role as deputy central bank governor.



Sheets declined to comment. He and Fischer met with many international banking officials as part of their official duties.

On Wednesday, a judge ordered Butina, 29, jailed until her trial after prosecutors argued she had ties to Russian intelligence and could flee the country.



The Russian readout of the Lavrov-Pompeo call also said the two men discussed ways to improve bilateral relations on “equal and mutually beneficial grounds”, after Putin and Donald Trump met in Helsinki on Monday.



Putin and Trump met with only translators present for two hours before giving a joint press conference. Russian government sources have discussed what was said in the one-on-one meeting but the White House has not offered details.