Justice Department Accuses Russians of Interfering in Midterm Elections

Russians working for a close ally of President Vladimir Putin engaged in an elaborate campaign of “information warfare” to interfere with the midterm elections, federal prosecutors said in unsealing a criminal complaint against one of them. The woman, Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova, of St. Petersburg, was involved in an effort “to spread distrust toward candidates for US political office and the US political system,” prosecutors said. Court documents provided a detailed look into Russian efforts to “sow division and discord” in the American political system, thanks in part to Khusyaynova, a fastidious manager and bookkeeper. Khusyaynova managed millions of dollars for a company owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch sometimes called “Putin’s chef.” He was indicted in February 2018 on charges of interfering in the 2016 presidential election. Some of the money Khusyaynova managed was spent on advertising on social media in the United States, buying internet domain names and “promoting news postings on social networks.” The conspirators seized on divisions in American politics, prosecutors said, including immigration, guns, race relations, women and even the debate over the protests by National Football League players during the national anthem. According to the complaint, Russia’s trolls did not limit themselves to either a liberal or conservative position, and often wrote from both viewpoints on the same issue. They developed strategies for blending in to partisan American audiences.