Russian national charged with interfering in US political system, 2018 elections

A Russian national has been charged with interfering in the U.S. political system, including next month’s midterm elections, the Department of Justice revealed Friday.

Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova, 44, was the chief accountant of a Russian operation called “Project Lakhta,” which was “funded by Russian oligarch Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin and two companies he controls, Concord Management and Consulting LLC, and Concord Catering,” a news release said.

“Project Lakhta includes multiple components, some involving domestic audiences within the Russian Federation and others targeting foreign audiences in the United States, members of the European Union, and Ukraine, among others,” according to the DOJ.

As part of her role in the operation, Khusyaynova allegedly oversaw its finances, “including foreign influence activities directed at the United States,” the DOJ said.

Among the records she allegedly managed were “detailed expenses for activities in the United States, such as expenditures for activists, advertisements on social media platforms, registration of domain names, the purchase of proxy servers, and ‘promoting news postings on social networks,'” the news release said.

“Today’s charges allege that Russian national Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova conspired with others who were part of a Russian influence campaign to interfere with U.S. democracy,” the news release said.

Neither Khusyaynova nor the alleged conspiracy operation is accused of producing “any effect” on election results, the news release said.

An array of issues, such as immigration, gun control and the NFL national anthem debate, were allegedly brought up in online discussions by the conspirators, who were told “to create ‘political intensity through supporting radical groups’ and to ‘aggravate the conflict between minorities and the rest of the population,'” the news release said.

“The actors also developed playbooks and strategic messaging documents that offered guidance on how to target particular social groups, including the timing of messages, the types of news outlets to use, and how to frame divisive messages,” the DOJ said.

Companies such as Facebook and Twitter provided “exceptional cooperation” to officials probing the allegations, the news release said.

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