She’s Russia’s new sexy red-headed spy.
Maria Butina, the ginger-fringed Russian grad student charged with acting as a foreign agent in the US this week, was compared by her handler to another famous undercover femme fatale — Anna Chapman, the sultry spook busted for spying in New York in 2010, federal prosecutors allege.
“Good morning! How are you faring there in the rays of the new fame? Are your admirers asking for your autographs yet? You have upstaged Anna Chapman,” a “Russian Official” told Butina in a March 2017 private Twitter message, according to new court papers filed Wednesday.
The official — who isn’t named in court documents, but is widely believed to be former Russian senator Alexander Torshin — was talking about a series of media articles that had been published about Butina, who was posing as a gun rights advocate in DC, federal prosecutors claim.
“[Chapman] poses with toy pistols, while you are being published with real ones. There are a hell of a lot of rumors circulating here about me too! Very funny!” he continued.
Chapman, who had been working in real estate in the Big Apple, made headlines in 2010 when she was revealed to be part of a Russian sleeper cell. She was deported to Russia shortly after along with nine other spies as part of a massive prisoner swap.
Federal prosecutors allege that the official’s comparisons between the two women — along with other conversations about Butina acting “covertly” — show she is “on par with other covert Russian agents.”
She allegedly sent the official a photo of herself near the US Capitol on President Trump’s Inauguration Day, to which he responded: “You’re a daredevil girl! What can I say!”
Butina responded: “Good teachers!”
The Justice Department alleged in its Monday indictment that Butina has been “developing relationships with US persons and infiltrating organizations having influence in American politics, for the purpose of advancing the interests of the Russian Federation.”
Through those connections, she twice tried to arrange “backdoor” meetings between President Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin on behalf of Torshin during the 2016 US presidential election, according to the New York Times.
Butina denies being a spy.