A few months back mainstream media also known as fake news or perhaps the liberal media presented a story that the NRA may have conspired with Vladimir Putin to help elect Donald Trump. Of course this was treated as a liberal fantasy or conspiracy theory by The Federalist and other supporters to President Trump (see http://thefederalist.com/2018/04/12/the-lefts-newest-nra-conspiracy-theory-approaches-9-11-truther-territory/.)

Now there appears to be evidence (at least enough to charge Mariia Butina as a Russian agent), She is alleged to have worked with an unidentified high-level Russian government official who seems to be Alexander Torshin, who has been linked both to Russia’s security services and organized crime.

According to the New York Times article cited above:

At the behest of a senior Russian government official, the woman, Mariia Butina, made connections through the National Rifle Association, religious organizations and the National Prayer Breakfast to try to steer the Republican Party toward more pro-Russia policies, court records show. Privately comparing herself to a Soviet Cold War propagandist, she worked to infiltrate American organizations and establish “back channel” lines of communication with American politicians.

Of course, we are all innocent until proven guilty and we will see what happens here. She could just be a Russian gun-rights enthusiast and student who is caught up in this mess but that seems a bit unlikely at this point.