(Bloomberg) -- Maria Butina, a
Russian who was freed after serving a U.S.
prison sentence for failing to register as an agent of a foreign government, arrived in
Moscow and thanked
diplomats and groups who supported her.“Russians don’t give up,” she said in a brief statement at the airport, accompanied by her father and Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.A phalanx of TV cameras awaited her, but she didn’t take questions after making the brief statement. President
Vladimir Putin has no plans to meet her, the
Kremlin said on Friday.Butina, a self-styled gun-rights activist who befriended senior officials from the National Rifle Association and the
Republican party in the run-up to the 2016
election, was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Russia described Butina as a political prisoner and victim of provocation by U.S. special services.\--With assistance from Anatoly Medetsky.To contact the reporter on this story: Gregory L. White in Moscow at gwhite64@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Thomasson at lthomasson@bloomberg.net, Sara Marley, Jon MenonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.