Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Saka.

My guest today is a pro-Putin loyalist representative in the Russian parliament, the Duma,

who arguably has a higher profile in the United States than in her own country.

And that's because Maria Boutina journeyed to the US in her late 20s

and proceeded to build a network of contacts in the Republican Party and circles close to Donald Trump.

In 2018, she was convicted of acting as an unregistered Russian agent, and in all, she spent more than a year behind bars.

Her case was linked to the wider Russian effort to influence the 2016 presidential election in favor of Mr. Trump.

Now, upon her release, Ms. Butina returned to Russia to something of a hero's welcome,

and shortly thereafter, she was elected to the Duma for Putin's United Russia Party.

Now the president's loyal backers are voicing unyielding support for his invasion of Ukraine.

But there is no disguising. This self-styled special military operation has not unfolded as intended.

Ukraine's determination to resist has not been broken.

Kiev has not fallen and the cost to Russia is mounting.

So what do Russians think this war is achieving?

Well, Maria Butina joins me now from Moscow.

Welcome to Hard Talk. Thank you. Hello.

President Putin insists that his so-called special military operation is going to plan.

After five weeks with everything we've seen in Ukraine with this war. Do you think that is true?

Yeah, absolutely.

I think it's true because it would be naive from the West to expect that this operation could end in a week.

I've heard speculation about it.

And some people would say, well, it should end quickly.

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