Maria Butina is a Russian national who spent about a year in an American prison on charges of conspiracy in the interests of the Russian authorities. After returning to Russia, she wrote the book “Prison Diary,” worked for the RT television channel, and is now a deputy in Russia's State Duma for the United Russia party.
In an interview with “Minskaya Pravda,” which was published on YouTube on July 26, 2024, Maria Butina stated that Americans are making money off her image:
“Americans have learned to make money from what happened to me. Do you know that I am a character in a video game? There is such a video game, I was surprised, it's called Call of Duty. And there is a character there named Irina Portnova. If you take my photo with dark hair and a Kalashnikov assault rifle, it will be, in fact, the same,” Butina said.
Call of Duty is a series of video games where the player typically takes on the role of a soldier from a particular country or organization.
In 2020, the series Black Ops Cold War installment was released, with a storyline set in the early 1980s during the Cold War between the USSR and the US. A CIA officer pursues a Soviet spy. And in this series, a new character appeared — KGB agent, Irina Portnova.
In the photo of Maria Butina with an assault rifle and bangs, she does look like the character in the game. However, its creators claim they based it on actress Julia Donnell.
Julia herself spoke about this in 2020 on her social networks. She posted photos of the character creation process.
In 2021, the game actors were gathered for filming in real life. Julia Donnell was among them. You can compare her photos from the event with the character.
