Russian Woman Charged in Conspiracy to Meddle in Midterms, Sow Division

A new criminal complaint against a Russian for interference was unsealed. This one was not filed by the Mueller team but rather by USAO-EDVA (US Attorney's Office, Eastern District of VA) and it demonstrates that the same folks are still at it.

U.S. hits Russian with first 2018 meddling criminal case

Elena Khusyaynova, 44, a St. Petersburg, Russia-based accountant, was charged in a criminal complaint with conspiracy to defraud the United States for taking part in a scheme to spend in excess of $10 million since the beginning of the year on targeted social media ads and web postings intended "to sow division and discord in the U.S. political system."

The FBI agent went to great pains to describe efforts by Khusyaynova and others working for Russian firms to appeal to Americans at both ends of the political spectrum as well as ethnic, racial and sexual orientations.

According to the complaint, an unnamed member of the conspiracy advised: “If you write posts in a liberal group…you must not use Breitbart titles. On the contrary, if you write posts in a conservative group, do not use Washington Post or BuzzFeed titles."

The tactics allegedly used by the Russians demonstrate a degree of sophistication coupled with crude stereotyping.

“Colored LGBT are less sophisticated than white, therefore complicated phrases and messages do not work. Be careful dealing with racial content. Just like ordinary Blacks, Latinos and Native Americans, colored LGBT people are very sensitive towards #whiteprivilege,” read translated Russian-language instructions to the social media team members, according to the FBI.

This is all a continuation of the IRA/Concord Managment Project Lakhta. From the sounds of it, they're really oriented toward sowing division first and foremost.

As you can imagine, they're still hitting all the wedge issues hard... because, well, wedge issues work: gun rights/gun control, issues of race and sexuality, the NFL anthem debacle, etc. What's interesting to me is that they seem to be becoming more sophisticated all the time with experience and getting better at nuance. For example, these two tweets:

“Dear @realdonaldtrump: the DOJ indicated 13 Russian nationals at the Internet Research Agency for violating federal criminal law to help your campaign and hurt other campaigns. Still think this Russia thing is a hoax and a witch hunt? Because a lot of witches just got indicted,” one Twitter account linked to the Russian campaign retweeted earlier this year, according to the complaint.

That was a fairly popular meme on Left Twitter a few months back. Also interesting is how they use the reaction to their own operation, in their operation. It's a regular Trollception. Here's a right-wing tweet, ticking the anti-immigration box and repeating a common meme with Trump supporters:

“Russians indicted today: 13 Illegal immigrants crossing Mexican border indicted today: 0 Anyway, I hope all those Internet Research Agency f*ckers will be sent to gitmo,” someone with the Twitter handle @JohnCopper16 wrote. “We didn’t vote for Trump because of a couple of hashtags shilled by the Russians.”

On the one hand, I want to say that somebody should tell Putin to save his money, we're doing a bang up job of dividing ourselves already. On the other hand, we don't need anyone else fostering division.

We haven't even had them yet.

And the Neo McCarthyists are on the march.

Geezus christ.

Elena Khusyaynova, 44, a St. Petersburg, Russia-based accountant, was charged in a criminal complaint with conspiracy to defraud the United States for taking part in a scheme to spend in excess of $10 million since the beginning of the year on targeted social media ads and web postings intended "to sow division and discord in the U.S. political system."

When is that FOREIGNER Soros going to be indicted?

The dudes spent billions over the last 3 years, and longer.

a reply to: theantediluvian

Oh boy, you must be happier than an emo kid in a razor blade factory!

Does this mean Planet Earth gets to IMPEACH Trump yet?

a reply to: theantediluvian

Call me naive, but I still don't understand how trolling on Twitter constitutes anything but trolling on Twitter. Elections do not occur on social media, nor is Twitter a province, state, or territory of the United States. Frankly it frightens me that the FBI is waisting vast resources indicting internet trolls for tweeting.

Here's a right-wing tweet,

I am surprised the op found one of those with all the FASCIST censorship going on.

originally posted by: neo96
We haven't even had them yet.

And the Neo McCarthyists are on the march.

Geezus christ.

When is that FOREIGNER Soros going to be indicted?

The dudes spent billions over the last 3 years, and longer.

This!

Yes, this. If there was ever a case for foreign interference and gerrymandering Soros is it.

originally posted by: neo96
We haven't even had them yet.

And the Neo McCarthyists are on the march.

Geezus christ.

Elena Khusyaynova, 44, a St. Petersburg, Russia-based accountant, was charged in a criminal complaint with conspiracy to defraud the United States for taking part in a scheme to spend in excess of $10 million since the beginning of the year on targeted social media ads and web postings intended "to sow division and discord in the U.S. political system."

When is that FOREIGNER Soros going to be indicted?

The dudes spent billions over the last 3 years, and longer.

Exactly the same day as Hillary Clinton, which is never!

Soros is ultimately doing more harm than good for liberal democrat causes in this county. If the liberals ever figure that out, he might be in trouble.

a reply to: theantediluvian

Rooskies. Gotta love 'em...

But what's their plan? Rooskies don't take a dump, Son, without a plan.

So they are being charged because they were involved in, and I quote, "a scheme to spend in excess of $10 million since the beginning of the year on targeted social media ads and web postings intended to sow division and discord in the U.S. political system."

So... That's Illegal?

Ok. Fine. I'm fine with locking up Rooskies. Rooskies are bad. We all know this because it's hammered into us on a daily basis by the MSM, and their Leftist puppet masters. I guess it would have been better if we had just nuked them at the end of WWII. Problem solved.

I mean, it DID work with Japan, right? Hell, they LOVE us!

However, how does posting adds on social media add up to, and again I quote "conspiracy to defraud the United States"?

I ain't trying to defend Rooskies, because everybody knows Rooskies are bad. Bad Rooskies, BAD!

Anyway, just asking.

I wonder what was actually in the adds?

Khusyaynova,

who is not in U.S. custody, allegedly works for Concord,

a Russia-based firm that special counsel Robert Mueller's office indicted in February for alleged interference in the 2016 election.

The Russians went from supporting Bernie and hating Hillary

To supporting Trump and hating Hillary

My kind of people

originally posted by: NiNjABackflip
a reply to: theantediluvian

Call me naive, but I still don't understand how trolling on Twitter constitutes anything but trolling on Twitter. Elections do not occur on social media, nor is Twitter a province, state, or territory of the United States. Frankly it frightens me that the FBI is waisting vast resources indicting internet trolls for tweeting.

Not to mention Conservatives don't get to use the big social media platforms. We have been banned from them all so really the only people this affects are Democrats.

Political causality is all the rage right now with political scientists on both ends of the spectrum. And it is not because they are aiming to prevent the extremism, but rather exploit it so it ultimately benefits their end. We are in a very perilous era with the country being held hostage between two extremes vying for nothing more than total control and where there will be no other outcome but totalitarianism and/or scorched earth. Neither side really cares who or how many get hurt in the process. There are no compromises being struck, let alone even sought. You combine this scenario with the identiarian politics being exploited by foreign actors driving a bigger wedge between our people and the impending further dominance of A.I. in our everyday lives that will surely be further exploited by an increasing totalitarian state and you have a recipe for utter destruction of individual liberty and Western society at large.

Trash talking about race on twitter is influencing election? Has nothing to do with election.Mueller can charge her, but he's not the judge the jury the executioner.

originally posted by: theantediluvian
On the one hand, I want to say that somebody should tell Putin to save his money, we're doing a bang up job of dividing ourselves already. On the other hand, we don't need anyone else fostering division.

It's actually kinda funny seeing the usual suspects trip over themselves to tell us all how unimportant your thread is.
Hmmm...