In 2016, a Spanish investigation connected Torshin with Alexander Romanov, the leader of the Tambovskaya Gang, who had been arrested in Spain and sentenced to four years in prison in May 2016 for illegal transactions. Torshin was allegedly involved in money laundering for the gang
November 2013: Former UN ambassador and future Trump national security adviser John Bolton appears in a video in which he talks up gun rights in Russia. Bolton is a member of the NRA’s “international affairs subcommittee” at the time. NPR later reports that Bolton recorded the address at Keene’s request for the Russian legislature, and that Right to Bear Arms used the video in its lobbying.
September 2014: Paul Erickson—an NRA member and longtime conservative Republican operative from South Dakota—attends a Right to Bear Arms meeting in Moscow with Butina. Erickson has known Butina at least since 2013.
Erickson later served as an advisor to both of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaigns.[6] He is also a former board member of the American Conservative Union, the group that organizes the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).[6] He was a friend of Andrew Breitbart.[6]