Mariia Butina

     In case you're not worried and distressed enough that Donald Trump, after sowing seeds of hostility between the United States and our closest allies, has shown that he's a jelly-spined puppet in the hands of  Russian dictator and puppet-master Vladimir Putin, to whom he handed a spectacular victory yesterday at the expense of our country...anyway, if all that isn't enough to give you a sick, nervous flutter in the pit of your stomach, then open today's newspaper to the third or fourth page  - or scroll far down to the bottom of your news website of choice - and look for the small headline about the young Russian secret agent who was arrested the day before yesterday and charged with using politically powerful Americans to sway United States policy towards the advancement of Russian interests.
       And though as of today this story is still relegated to the hinterland of the 24-hour news cycle - Thanks to Donald Trump, as always, monopolizing the headlines, this time with his own Russian folly - its implications are huge - and terrifying.

   The spy, 29-year-old Mariia Butina,

...whose handler was a ruthless Russian criminal in the employ of his government named Alexander Torshin,  ​

...came to the United States two years ago on a student visa with the purpose of becoming involved in our Presidential election and subsequently infiltrating American politics.  This she was able to do with the help of a traitorous American operative who met with her in Moscow and  helped her target politically powerful Republican officials and business men.
      And the biggest, most prized target was then-Presidential candidate Donald Trump. 
     Mariia Butina became a player in what the New York Times called "a multi-faceted Russian effort to sway the election through computer espionage, personal overtures and the assistance of American intermediaries."  

    She posed as an impassioned guns rights advocate, 

​...and cozied up to a National Rifle Association big wig named Paul Erikson,

...who helped her to become the darling of conservative shakers and movers and to insinuate herself into pro-Trump circles.

​Mariia Butina and Alexander Torshin with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker at an NRA  convention.

     During the 2016 election Butina tried twice though Paul Erikson to set up a meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin but Jarrod Kushner rejected the idea. She met and was photographed with with Donald Trump Jr. at an N.R.A. dinner.
     According to the New York Times, "Ms. Butina viewed the N.R.A. as a powerful force for shifting Republican policies...the largest sponsor of the elections to the U.S. Congress and as a sponsor of the Conservative Action Conference."  Mariia Butina and Alexander Torshin  were invited to events hosted by Republican-affiliated groups, including two National Prayer Breakfasts in 2016 and 2017.  Through her N.R.A. connections and right-wing Christian Evangelical connections Butina was able to infiltrate other conservative organizations with the purpose of steering the Republican party towards a pro-Russia agenda.
     The main assignment towards which she was working was the establishment of "back channel" lines of communication between Russian operatives and American politicians so that, according to the Times, "these lines could be used by Russia to penetrate the U.S. national decision-making apparatus to advance the agenda of Russia."
      And with the help of the Republican politicians, N.R.A. officials, and Evangelical Christians with whom she ingratiated herself she might well have succeeded to this end if not for the work of our intelligence community and our Justice system, so frequently and harshly maligned by the man who is supposed to be our leader, the chief defender and steward of our nation's well-being.

    We've spent so much time as a nation worrying about attacks by Islamic terrorists on our shores, as well we should, the September 11, 2001 attack on the Twin Towers in New York having stressed the importance of vigilance. 
   And yet here's the irony: Terrorists may have the ability to hurt individual citizens, but terrorists can never bring down our country or destroy our American Democracy. They have not the means for that.
​        Someone like this does, and so is far more dangerous and terrifying than any terrorist. 

    And here's one more thought worth pondering: Which is the political party Russian intelligence has gravitated to as the most likely conduit for infiltration into our government? For influencing policy away from the good of the American people and towards the advancement of Russia's interests? Which is the party whose members Putin's operatives have
targeted - correctly so, as is now evident - as low-hanging, easily plucked fruit?
     Hint:  It's not the Democrats.

Reference:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/16/us/politics/trump-russia-indictment.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44865626