Accused Russian spy Maria Butina gets 18 months in prison, will be deported after

Maria Butina, the Russian national accused of being a spy, was sentenced to 18 months in prison Friday on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent.

Butina pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in December, and on Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya S. Chutkan decided she will spend 9 months in prison after time served, BuzzFeed News reports. She will be deported to Russia after her sentence.

Butina was arrested last July on the charge of conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of the Russian government. Prosecutors detailed how she allegedly cozied up to GOP operatives and the NRA by posing as a gun rights activist, and said she did so to influence those operatives in Russia's favor. Butina originally pleaded not guilty to the conspiracy charge, but decided in December to cooperate with prosecutors and plead guilty to the charge.

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Butina stayed in the U.S. under a student visa from George Washington University, where she was studying international relations, per prosecutors. Prosecutors also detailed she had the closest ties to Paul Erickson, saying she "agreed and conspired" with him "under direction of" Russian Central Bank leader Alexander Torshin.