Butina Released From Prison, Transferred to Immigration Facility - US Customs Agency

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Butina, arrested in mid-2018 for allegedly conspiring to act as a foreign agent without notifying US authorities, is set to be released from a Florida prison on Friday after spending nearly sixteen months in jail. According to her lawyer, Robert Driscoll, she may arrive in Moscow already on Saturday.

Russian citizen Maria Butina has been released from US prison and transferred to an immigration detention facility, according to an update by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency on Friday.

Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had no plans to meet with Russian national Maria Butina after her return to Russia from US prison.

"No, he doesn't plan this. And why should he hold a meeting with Maria Butina? ... No, there is no such meeting in his plans," Peskov told reporters.

Butina was arrested in mid-2018 and sentenced to 18 months in prison last April on a single charge of conspiring to act as an unregistered foreign agent in the United States. 

Maria Butina, left, is shown next to her attorney Robert Driscoll, before U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan

© AP Photo / Dana Verkouteren

She signed a plea deal after being held in solitary confinement and requested a sentence of time served. Butina's lawyer, Robert Driscoll, said in late September that she would be released on 25 October.