US alleges Russian 'information warfare' ahead of midterms

Russians working for a close ally of president Vladimir Putin are engaging in an elaborate campaign of "information warfare" to interfere with the US midterm elections next month, federal prosecutors said Friday in unsealing charges against a woman whom they labelled the project's "chief accountant."

The woman, Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova, 44, of St. Petersburg, managed a multimillion-dollar budget for the effort to "sow division and discord" in the US political system, according to a criminal complaint. She bought internet domain names and Facebook and Instagram ads and spent money on building out Twitter accounts and paying to promote divisive posts on social media.