SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO.com) — A Russian newspaper reports that Maria Butina, the former girlfriend of South Dakotan political operative Paul Erickson, lost her bid for election to the Russian legislature last week.
The couple had lived in Sioux Falls.
Butina, who was deported from the United States for being a foreign agent, ran on the United Russia party list from Kirov.
That’s the same party as President Vladimir Putin’s.
Kirov is west of Moscow.
A Kirov newspaper called the Kirov region “rebellious,” as it gave little support to Putin’s party in the election.
Elsewhere in Russia, Putin’s party overwhelmingly won. However, the United States State Department said the election, held Sept. 17-19, was not conducted fairly.
Duma elections in the Russian Federation took place under conditions not conducive to free and fair proceedings. The Russian government’s use of laws on “extremist organizations,” “foreign agents,” and “undesirable organizations” severely restricted political pluralism and prevented the Russian people from exercising their civil and political rights.
According to reporting by the Associated Press in January, Trump pardoned Erickson before leaving office.
According to the AP:
Erickson received the pardon even though he had pleaded guilty to fraudulent investment schemes that had nothing to do with Russia or the agent. It was part of a flurry of clemency action by Trump just before his term ended, with the White House characterizing his conviction as “based off the Russian collusion hoax” and saying his pardon “helps right the wrongs of what has been revealed to be perhaps the greatest witch hunt in American History.”
The AP also reported:
Erickson met Butina as she sought to set up back channels of communication between American conservatives and Russia. Butina admitted in 2018 that Erickson had helped her, using his ties with the National Rifle Association.
The Kirov newspaper explained the convoluted means by which Butina hoped to win a seat in the Duma (machine translation from Russian to English):
Recall that Maria Butina went to the State Duma as a candidate-list from the “United Russia”. She was under the second number, after the governor of the Kirov region Igor Vasiliev. Apparently, according to the original plans, Vasilyev had to abandon the mandate, and then Butina would surely pass to the lower house of parliament, but the Kirov residents decided differently.
The Kirov newspaper said Butina could still have a chance to go to the Duma on one of the other party’s lists.
