USA Really, a new DC-based Russian propaganda site, reacted to news of Russian national Elena Khusyaynova's indictment last week for U.S. political interference by bragging about her role as its chief financial officer.
From USA Really:
The truth is that Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova is CFO of the USA Really news agency and its parent organization, Federal News Agency. This is her only “crime.” The disgusting, monstrous octopus stretching its arms to choke free speech and independent journalism panicked upon hearing USA Really’s voice of truth that it tries to hush up through the hegemony of conventional American media.
It’s not clear what USA Really hoped to gain through the admission. The site is quick to deny that Russia had any involvement in the 2016 election. But its gleeful association with Khusyaynova suggests that USA Really is not the independent, inquisitive news organization that it claims to be, but rather an adjunct of a deep-pocketed propaganda apparatus that federal prosecutors say amounts to a criminal conspiracy against the United States.
(...)
In an indictment handed down last week, prosecutors accused Khusyaynova of orchestrating the flows of millions of dollars to various arms of a Russian digital information operation designed to stoke political, cultural, and racial divisions in the United States and Europe. Dubbed Project Lahtka, its goal, prosecutors alleged, was “to undermine faith in our democratic institutions.”
(...)
The Federal News Agency (FAN) was one of a one of a number of entities that federal prosecutors say “employed hundreds of individuals in support” of Project Lahtka, and through which they allege Khusyaynova funneled money that financed social media disinformation campaigns in the U.S.
The FAN is allegedly run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian catering billionaire commonly known as “Putin’s cook.” Prosecutors claim that three of Progozhin’s catering businesses provided the primary source of funding for Project Lahtka’s U.S. election-meddling campaigns. The Justice Department indicted Prigozhin in February on charges related to Russian election-meddling efforts.
(...)
USA Really’s website is run by Alexander Malkevich, a Russian media executive and a member of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, a private organization established by Russian President Vladimir Putin, through which Malkevich advises the Russian government on media policy. In that capacity, he has recently called for “more [Russian] mass media in order to fight back in the world information war.”
USA Really set up shop this year in a shared office space across the street from the White House. Its headquarters, adorned with a photo of President Donald Trump and a Confederate flag, previously shared the same St. Petersburg building that once housed the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a Kremlin propaganda organ responsible for significant disinformation efforts in the U.S., and involved in Project Lahtka.
D.C.-Based Russian Media Venture Boasts that Indicted Kremlin Operative Is Its CFO (Daily Beast)