You're reading: RFE/RL: Gun play – The rise and fall of Maria Butina’s wannabe Russian NRA

Ahead of the December 2011 parliamentary elections in Russia that triggered street protests over alleged fraud, veteran opposition politician Vladimir Milov says he was contacted by a then obscure group asking to speak at an antigovernment rally he was planning.

The group had formed earlier that year under the name Right To Bear Arms and was lobbying for an end to the country’s ban on pistols and revolvers.

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