Russia denies seizing US citizen as a bargaining chip

By Joel Gehrke

Published January 9, 2019 7:44pm ET

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Russia denies seizing US citizen as a bargaining chip — A journalist presents a bunch of flowers to Russian agent Maria Butina, upon her arrival from the United States at Moscow International Airport Sheremetyevo outside Moscow, Russia, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2019. Butina, a gun rights activist who sought to infiltrate conservative U.S. political groups and promote Russia's agenda around the time that Donald Trump rose to power, was released Friday from a low-security facility in Florida.

Russian President Vladimir Putin does not plan to use detained American Paul Whelan as a bargaining chip with the United States to win the release of his own spies, a top Russian official said Wednesday.

“In Russia, people are never used as pawns in a diplomatic game,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, according to TASS, Russia’s state-run news outlet.

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