Butina's arrest last week on charges that she was acting as an unregistered Russian agent and allegations that she has ties to Russian intelligence rattled those who knew her at American University, where she spent two years in the global security program at the School of International Service. Wouldn't a Russian agent have been more covert, and have worked to keep her Kremlin advocacy under wraps?

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The FBI has captured a real live Russian, Maria Butina, femme-fatale nominee to tell all about "Russia-gate." The mainstream media are all singing the same Russiagate score.

On Monday, Consortiumnews Editor Joe Lauria, Aleander Mercouris, and I took part in an unusually interesting discussion of the new femme fatale, Mariia Butina, on RT's Crosstalk. The back and forth is, I would suggest, the best thing out there now on the subject.

Watch it, below...

Authors Bio:
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. He was an Army infantry/intelligence officer and then a CIA analyst for 27 years, and is now on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS). His website is raymcgovern.com