RUSSIAN CHARGED OVER U.S. ELECTION INTERFERENCE

A Russian national has been charged as one of the suspected masterminds behind a conspiracy to interfere in both the 2016 U.S. election and 2018 midterms. Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova, 44, of St. Petersburg, Russia, allegedly served as the chief accountant for an operation known as “Project Lakhta,” the U.S. Justice Department said Friday. The department identified the operation as “a Russian umbrella effort funded by Russian oligarch Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin and two companies he controls, Concord Management and Consulting LLC, and Concord Catering.” The charges announced Friday allege the creation of thousands of social media and email accounts that appeared to be run by Americans as part of what the conspirators referred to as “information warfare against the United States.” The case appears to be an outgrowth of a larger case filed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in February, accusing Prigozhin and others of interfering in the 2016 election by pushing divisive social media campaigns that attacked Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.