US charges Russian with midterm vote meddling

Bloomberg

The US charged a Russian woman with conspiring to interfere in both the 2016 and 2018 elections, marking the first criminal charges related to next month’s congressional midterm vote.
Elena Alekseevna Khusy-aynova of St. Petersburg, allegedly served as the chief accountant for an operation known as “Project Lakhta,” the Justice Department said in a statement. 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 move comes as top US law enforcement and intelligence agencies warn Americans about ongoing efforts by Russia, China and other foreign actors to interfere in the 2018 midterm and 2020 presidential elections.
The charge announced on Friday centered on a conspiracy that included the creation of thousands of social media and email accounts that appeared to be run by US persons as part of what the conspirators referred to as “information warfare against the United States.”
Referring to Khusyaynova, the Justice Department said, “The financial documents she controlled include 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 network.” The complaint details the way in which the Russian propaganda effort sought to denigrate Trump’s opponents, including prominent members of the Republican party.
The filing highlights scripts written in 2017 by Russian organizers to be used in social media campaigns in the US. One script recommends that Senator John McCain be described as “an old geezer who has lost it and who long ago belonged in a home for the elderly.”
Another goes after House Speaker Paul Ryan, suggesting that he be described as “a complete and absolute nobody incapable of any decisiveness. Emphasize that while serving as Speaker, this two-faced loudmouth has not accomplished anything good for America or for American citizens.”
Khusyaynova, 44, remains at large in Russia, according to a US official. She kept detailed financial documents that included itemized budgets for technology expenses, social media marketing, paying activists and advertisements on social media platforms, according to a criminal complaint that the US unsealed on Friday.
The Russian Embassy in Washington dismissed the charges as “unfounded,” saying they’re aimed at providing justifications for new sanctions against Moscow. “We expected the upcoming mid-term elections to be used as a convenient pretext for further accusations against Russia, accusing us again and again of meddling,” the mission said in a statement on its Facebook page.
The criminal complaint unsealed on Friday “demonstrates that our elections continue to be a target for our adversaries,” the Homeland Security Department said in a statement. “The US will not tolerate interference in our democratic processes and DHS stands ready to defend our elections.”
Targeted messages aimed at sowing discord in the US included issues such as immigration, gun control, race relations and the debate over National Football League players kneeling during the national anthem, according to the complaint.