WASHINGTON — A Russian woman charged with secretly acting on Moscow’s behalf was working as a covert agent in the United States and was recently in contact with a suspected Russian intelligence official as part of a “yearslong” conspiracy, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
They described a double life in which the woman, Maria Butina, studied at American University and dated a Republican operative from South Dakota, but secretly stayed in contact with a high-ranking official in Moscow and took part in the romance simply as part of the job. She offered S.E.X. to another American in “exchange for a position within a special interest organization,” prosecutors wrote.
The new details about Ms. Butina, 29, were disclosed in a court filing in which prosecutors argued that she should be held without bond because she was a flight risk. She was moving money out of the country, had her boxes packed and had terminated her lease, court papers showed.
“The defendant is considered to be on par with other covert Russian agents,” prosecutors said. Ms. Butina was arrested on Sunday in Washington and accused of being an unregistered foreign agent of Russia. A judge ordered her held without bond during an appearance in federal court in Washington on Wednesday.
