Persecution of Maria Butina takes a nasty turn

Persecution of Maria Butina takes a nasty turn

The arrest of Maria Butina, a pro-Second Amendment Russian visitor, has been topped by allegations of cruel treatment at American hands.

 August 21, 2018

By

 Seraphim Hanisch

2,619 Views

The Russian News Agency TASS reported Monday, August 20, 2018, that Russian citizen Maria Butina has been suffering “inhumane and degrading” treatment. Russian Ombudsperson Tatiana Moskalkova gave the following statement on her website:

 “I would like to express my utmost concern at the actions of US prison authorities during the transfer of Russian citizen Maria Butina from Washington to Alexandria (Virginia State) prison…  There are clear signs of cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, punishment by the US government and violation of the rules of international law.”

RT also reported on this matter on Sunday, 19 August, noting that the 29-year-old Russian gun rights activist was moved to a different prison without warning. The Russian embassy claimed that her new conditions are bordering on torture. The report of her incarceration conditions is frustrating and saddening to read:

The Russian embassy in the US, which has been closely following Butina’s case, says she was transferred from her Washington jail handcuffed, without warning or explanation for the move. Before the move, Butina was subjected to a “degrading full strip search,” and all her things were taken away, including books, shoes, towels and other hygiene items.

Butina was moved to a prison in Alexandria, Virginia, and spent the next 12 hours in a quarantine cell with no food and all the lights on, unable to sleep. She will now be kept in “administrative segregation,” which means locked up in solitary confinement – conditions bordering on torture, the embassy says.

Embassy staff paid an emergency visit to Butina in her new place of detention. They also intend to send another note of official protest to the US Department of State, in addition to the one recently filed over the inhumane treatment of the Russian citizen.

“We have more and more questions to the U.S. justice system,” the embassy says in a Facebook post. “Should allegations pressed against Maria before the actual trial condemn her to practices that are slightly below torture? It seems that the reason behind the US decision to withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council was to give the US authorities green light for such provocations.”

The majority of US government agencies have been pursuing an increasingly aggressive stance towards the Russian Federation without any hard evidence for cause for over two years now. In the last week a painful sanctions package was approved which goes into effect on Wednesday this week.

As we have reported at the Duran, this action appears to be serving a dual purpose – to isolate and hurt Russia in her own ability to remain sovereign and not part of the globalist agenda, and at the same time to create a situation through which the removal of US President Donald Trump may be initiated after the midterms in November.

Added to this is the recent arrest and imprisonment of 29-year-old Maria Butina, a Russian political activist who supports a Russian pro-gun group called “Right to Bear Arms.” In this regard, she was a known presence at gun-rights lobbies in the US, where she was living and studying at the American University in Washington, DC.

Her involvement in US politics, notably the National Rifle Association and her alliances with Republicans and conservatives in the US made her a target for accusation as a Russian agent, presumably to further bolster the idea that Trump and by extension, members of the Republican Party at large were in alliance with the Russians in the like manner as the “election collusion” narrative that has been the dead weight on the Trump presidency since before day one.

Butina is being held on conspiracy charges that would be laughable to even think of any other time.

Like Russiagate, these charges are unsubstantiated.

Like Russiagate, these charges are in reaction to the fact that Mr. Trump won the presidency and not Hillary Clinton.

And, like Russiagate, these charges are a major attempt to cut Russia off from the world, simply because Russia will not play the globalist game. Again here, one need only refer to Vladimir Putin’s speech in Valdai in 2013 to see the battle lines that are drawn.

One can only wonder at the insanity of the American government apparatus and the power that seems to be operating through it. This is not the way the United States used to be.