The communists demanded to remove Maria Butina from the elections to the State Duma due to foreign funding

The Communist Party of Russia demanded from the Central Election Commission to remove from the State Duma elections Maria Butina, an employee of the RT channel, who plans to be elected to deputies on the United Russia party list in the Kirov region.

Butina, in the information about the sources of income, indicated that she “has foreign bonds and shares of 34 foreign companies, as well as foreign financing”, stated in the Kirov branch of the Communist Party. In particular, the communists draw attention to the fact that she received a monetary reward from a US citizen and CEO of the cryptocurrency trading company Backlog.Com.Inc, Byrne Patrick, who collaborates with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The Communist Party said that Butina violated the federal laws “On the election of deputies to the State Duma” and “On Combating Corruption”, which prohibit candidates from having accounts and valuables in foreign banks and using foreign financial instruments.

Butina was detained in the summer of 2018 in the United States on charges of illegally promoting Russian interests and working as a foreign agent without registration. According to the prosecution, she tried to establish ties with American conservatives. She pleaded guilty and cooperated with the investigation. In April 2019, the court sentenced the girl to 18 months in prison. In October 2019, Butina returned in Russia.

She admitted that her activities were supervised by a Russian official – former senator and deputy chairman of the Central Bank Alexander Torshin.

Read more about the Butina case in the materials “Not just Maria: how the deputy chairman of the Central Bank Torshin sent an assistant to Trump’s headquarters and what he did in the Taganskaya organized criminal group,” and Butina is on trial. What Torshin’s assistant, arrested in the USA, confessed to and what else she can tell.