The Enigmatic Russian Paying Maria Butina's Legal Bills
Alexander Ionov, the founder of the NGO, called the Anti-Globalization Movement, began raising money for the suspected Russian agent through a fundraising website in 2018.
In the murky world of Russian influence operations, a troll farm based out of St. Petersburg can flood American voters with propaganda and disinformation at a deniable distance from the Kremlin. A Russian gun-rights group can cultivate U.S. conservatives at arm’s length from Vladimir Putin. And an unregistered Russian agent being held in a Northern Virginia detention center can have her legal bills paid by an NGO that is partly funded, but not directly controlled, by the Kremlin.
Maria Butina, to seeking to infiltrate and influence American policy makers in the run-up to
