Former Russian spy Maria Butina claimed that Russia is “not bombing civilians” and suggested in a bizarre interview Wednesday that Ukrainians are destroying their own cities.
Butina — a former Kremlin spy who admitted to setting up a Moscow backchannel for Republican operatives in the US — pushed Kremlin propaganda lines during an interview with the BBC News.
“Russia is not bombing civilians, Russian military troops actually having humanitarian corridors,” said the ex-spy, who is now a member of the Russian parliament and helped author the “fake news law” that would put journalists in prison for up to 15 years for reporting anything that contradicts that government’s official stance.
The Kremlin loyalist wants to “seriously see the evidence that these are Russians,” she said of the Russian bombs going off in residential areas of Ukraine. “In my region, we helped people evacuating from Donbas.”
When the BBC asked her if she was suggesting Ukraine was bombing its own people, Butina said: “I hope not … I hope no one in the world can bomb their own population.”
The Russian politician cited no evidence that Russians are not bombing civilians even though she said, “We have tons of evidence Russian army does not bomb civilian population.”
“We just don’t do it,” she said. “Russians just don’t it.”
The British journalist pressed Butina about why Ukrainians aren’t fleeing to Russia if it’s so benevolent and instead heading west, and she responded by saying it was their right to go east or west.
Russia, she insisted, is on a mission to “denazify” Ukraine, and she believes President Vlodymyr Zelensky, a Jewish descendant of Holocaust survivors, is a Nazi himself.
“According to his actions, absolutely,” she said when asked if Zelensky is a Nazi.
Butina reaffirmed her commitment to President Vladimir Putin, saying: “I do trust my president as well as the majority of Russians do.”
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Butina was arrested in 2018 and sentenced to 18 months behind bars in the US, after pleading guilty to trying to infiltrate the NRA and other political groups without registering as a foreign agent. She was elected to the Russian parliament in 2021.
