Maria Valerievna Butina, born on November 10, 1988, in Barnaul, Altai Krai, Russia, to father Valery Viktorovich Butin, an entrepreneur, and a mother who worked as a chief engineer, has one sister and a niece. She graduated with honors at age 17 from Gymnasium Number 22 in Barnaul, emphasizing English studies, and earned bachelor's degrees in political science and pedagogy from Altai State University in 2010. Entering politics early, she served as a youth specialist for the Fair Russia party in Altai (2006-2007), founded a furniture retail business at age 21 which she sold to launch an advertising agency in Moscow, and established the Right to Bear Arms gun rights organization in 2011 while assisting Aleksandr Torshin, a key Russian official who directed her U.S. activities. As a Russian political activist and gun rights advocate, she cultivated ties with the NRA, conservative operatives like Paul Erickson (with whom she had a romantic relationship), and sought back channels between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, including NRA-organized trips to Moscow. Butina moved to the U.S. on a student visa, earning a Master of International Affairs from American University in 2018 shortly before her arrest in July 2018. She pleaded guilty in December 2018 to acting as an unregistered foreign agent of Russia by covertly advancing Russian interests in U.S. politics, receiving an 18-month sentence in April 2019, serving additional time after pretrial detention, and was deported to Russia on October 25, 2019. Upon return, she hosted a YouTube program for RT starting December 2019, visited Alexei Navalny in prison in 2021, and was elected to Russia's State Duma in September 2021 as a United Russia deputy, serving on the Committee on International Affairs and the Commission investigating foreign interference; she resides in Moscow and has vocally supported Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, earning sanctions from the U.S., Canada, and UK. Controversies persist over her alleged espionage (which she denies), use of personal relationships for influence, and role in Russian interference efforts.