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Russian officials to meet suspected spy jailed in U.S.

MOSCOW - Russian Embassy officials are to meet with a Siberian gun rights activist jailed in Washington on charges of spying on the United States.

The Embassy said in a Facebook post that consular officials will meet with Maria Butina on Thursday for the first time since her Sunday arrest, and will provide her "all necessary help."

Butina, 29, denies wrongdoing, and the Russian government has lashed out at the arrest as driven by U.S. domestic politics and "anti-Russian hysteria."

Federal prosecutors accuse Butina of being a covert Russian agent, having contacts with the KGB successor agency FSB, and using sex and deception to forge influential U.S. connections.

One of her former teachers told The Associated Press that just before her arrest she was considering a job in Silicon Valley.

This courtroom sketch depicts Maria Butina, a 29-year-old gun-rights activist suspected of being a covert Russian agent, listening Wednesday to Assistant U.S. Attorney Erik Kenerson as he speaks to Judge Deborah Robinson, left, during a hearing in federal court in Washington. Prosecutors say Butina was likely in contact with Kremlin operatives while living in the United States. And prosecutors also are accusing her of using sex and deception to forge influential connections. Associated PRess
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