MOSCOW _ Kremlin spy agencies knew nothing about Maria Butina, the Russian student detained in the U.S. for acting as an unregistered agent for Moscow, President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday.
"When I heard something was going on around her, for a start, I asked the heads of our secret services, 'who is she?' Nobody knows anything about her," Putin told a televised Kremlin meeting of human rights activists. He said officials in the upper house of parliament, where she was at one point an aide, were aware of her, but he described the U.S. allegations as unfounded.
Jailed in Washington in July, Butina has reached agreement with prosecutors to resolve the charges against her. A hearing on the pact is scheduled for Wednesday. She's accused of building contacts among Republican operatives and legislators, as well as the National Rifle Association, in an effort to improve relations with Russia at the direction of a senior Russian official, Alexander Torshin, who recently retired as deputy chairman of the Bank of Russia. Torshin has confirmed he knew Butina, but hasn't commented on the charges against her.
Russian officials have denounced her arrest and call her a political prisoner. Calling her fate "unfortunate," Putin didn't mention the possibility of a deal with prosecutors.
