The US government on Friday charged a Russian national with playing a key financial role in a Kremlin-backed plan to conduct "information warfare" against the United States, including to influence next month's congressional elections, Reuters reported.
The criminal complaint charging Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova, 44, with conspiracy to interfere with the US political system was unsealed in Alexandria, Virginia.
The complaint says Khusyaynova was the chief accountant for Project Lakhta, which it said was funded by Russian oligarch Evgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin and two companies he controls, Concord Management and Consulting LLC and Concord Catering.
Using social media and other avenues, the participants waged "information warfare against the United States," attempting to sow distrust of candidates for US political office and the U.S. political system, according to the complaint.
Concord Management and Concord Catering were among the three entities and 13 Russian individuals who were indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office in February in an alleged criminal and espionage conspiracy to tamper with the 2016 US presidential election.
Mueller, a former FBI Director, was appointed by the Justice Department last year to oversee the federal investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.
His appoint came after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from any involvement in the Russia investigation due to his role as a prominent campaign adviser and surrogate.
Prigozhin, who was among those personally charged by Mueller, has been dubbed "Putin's cook" by Russian media because his catering business has organized banquets for Russian President Vladimir Putin and other senior political figures. He has been hit with sanctions by the US government, noted Reuters.
In July, Mueller's office also indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers who were accused of hacking Democratic computer networks as part of Russian meddling in the 2016 US election.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)