Maria Butina, who was deported by the US in October for acting as an unannounced foreign agent, has her own program on RT.

RT announced on its website on December 17 that Maria Butina will be the host of the show aired Wednesday evening, in which she commented on Russian topical issues.

Maria Butina, 31, a political student, started her master's degree at American University in Washington in 2016. Butina was arrested by the FBI in July 2018. She admitted to being a secret agent for the Kremlin and had infiltrated the National National Rifle Association (NRA) to influence association policy. She violated US law by not reporting those activities to the US Department of Justice.

The U.S. argued that Butina used these activities to reach President Trump, who was a Republican candidate in the 2016 election. Butina also met Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. at a party at the 2016 NRA annual conference.

Butina was sentenced to 18 months by the United States and deported in October. She is the only Russian citizen arrested and convicted in a three-year investigation of the Russian intervention in 2016 election. Russia declared the case against Politically motivated Butina, calling the allegation "organized and completely fabricated".