US charges Russian woman with interfering in midterm polls

Washington: A Russian woman has been charged by the US government with trying to interfere in the 2018 midterm elections as part of a conspiracy that exploited thousands of social media accounts and emails that claimed to be owned by US residents, officials said. Forty-four-old Elena Khusyaynova of St. Petersburg is accused of participating in a conspiracy engaged in “information warfare against the US” that aimed “create and amplify divisive social media and political content”.

Slammed the move, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said: “Demonstrating hostility to Russia and contempt for the whole world, they will only receive an increasingly tough response.” He said that Washington was “fabricating a pretext for imposing the notorious sanctions once again against our country”.

According to a New York Times report on Friday, Khusyaynova bought Internet domain names and Facebook and Instagram ads as well as spent money on building out Twitter accounts and paid to promote divisive posts on social media. Prosecutors said that Khusyaynova was the chief accountant for a Russian entity dubbed Project Lakhta and managed the group’s financing. The group was backed by Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch known as “Putin’s chef” who was among 13 Russians indicted in February by Special Counsel Robert Mueller on charges of interfering in the 2016 election. (IANS)