Just over three months ago Katya Zatuliveter was fighting to clear her name over claims she was a Russian spy who had passed British military secrets to Moscow.
Miss Zatuliveter fell under suspicion after having an affair with Liberal Democrat MP Mike Hancock while she was his parliamentary researcher. MI5 demanded her deportation over suspicions she had transferred top secret information to an intelligence agent – referred to as "Boris" at court hearings – operating under diplomatic cover from Russia's embassy in Kensington Palace Gardens.
But an immigration appeals commission dismissed that accusation in November and granted her the right to stay in the UK.
Now the 26-year-old is back in Russia and inspired by a new fight as she prepares to serve as an election observer in Sunday's vote for the Russian presidency.
"My struggle and victory over injustice in England taught me that one person can achieve a great deal," she told The Sunday Telegraph in her first newspaper interview since winning her appeal