1st Russian charged with meddling in US polls

New York, Oct. 20: The US government on Friday charged a Russian national with playing a key financial role in a Kremlin- backed plan to conduct “information warfare” against the United States, including ongoing attempts to influence next month’s congressional elections.

Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova, 44, became the first person charged with a crime for attempting to interfere in the 2018 US midterm elections, according to a government official with knowledge of the investigation.

Ms Khusyaynova was the chief accountant for Project Lakhta, an operation started in 2014 and financed by a Russian oligarch close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and two companies he controls, according to a criminal complaint.

The oligarch, Evgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin, and his two companies were indicted in February in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s separate investigation of alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U. S. presidential election to boost eventual winner Donald Trump over his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.

The case against Ms Khusyaynova was unsealed on the same day that US law enforcement and intelligence agencies issued a warning about attempts by Russia, China, Iran and other foreign entities to interfere with Nov. 6 congressional elections, in which Trump’s Republicans are trying to maintain majority power in Congress, and national elections in 2020. The complaint detailed new examples of Russians using fake personas on social media to stoke divisions over race, gun rights, voter fraud and other issues.

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