A Russian woman who admitted acting as an agent and infiltrating US political groups has been freed from a Florida prison and will be deported. Maria Butina was sentenced to 18 months earlier this year after admitting to a single count of conspiracy, but was given credit for time already served.

The 30-year-old pro-gun activist tried to infiltrate the National Rifle Association (NRA) to influence policy. Russian officials say she is expected to arrive in Moscow on Saturday. Butina was released from a low-security prison in Tallahassee, and is being transferred to a migration centre in the city of Miami to be deported. Her lawyer, Robert Driscoll, earlier said he had been given little information about her release. “They tend to do these things like they’re moving a nuclear bomb, and they’re not,” he told the Washington Examiner.

Mr Driscoll said two US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents would escort Butina until she was on her way to Moscow.

Who is Maria Butina?

According to her social media profiles, Butina was born in the southern Siberian city of Barnaul in 1988 and studied political science at university. She is said to have been a weapon enthusiast since childhood and went on to be involved in politics and promoting gun rights – founding a Russian lobby group called the Right to Bear Arms. Butina also travelled back-and-forth to the US for NRA conventions. In 2015 she attended a Trump campaign event in Las Vegas, asking the presidential candidate about his views on US sanctions in Russia.(BBC)…[+]