Pressuring the 30-year-old Butina to plead guilty to a ridiculous federal offense of "conspiring" to act as an agent of the Russian government, U.S. officials incarcerated her for a total of 15 months, including 4 months in solitary confinement, which many experts believe is a form of torture that can cause permanent mental damage. After that, they deported her to Russia in October 2019. 

After the article was published, a reader sent me a link to an article from the New York Times dated November 19, 2021, entitled "After 15 Months in U.S. Prisons, She Now Sits in Russia's Parliament." The article provided an update on Maria Butina two years after she was forcibly deported to Russia, pointing out, among other things, that she was then serving as a representative to the Duma, which is the lower house of the Russian Parliament.