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A dual Russian-US citizen has been charged with acting as an illegal agent of the Russian government, federal prosecutors in New York said on Tuesday.
Elena Branson faces six criminal counts over an allegation by prosecutors that she failed to register with the US government as a foreign government agent, said a statement from US Attorney in Manhattan Damian Williams.
Ms Branson, said the US Department of Justice's Southern District of New York, had “worked on behalf of the Russian government and Russian officials to advance Russian interests in the United States, including by co-ordinating meetings for Russian officials to lobby US political officials and business persons and by operating organisations in the United States for the purpose of publicly promoting Russian government policies".
The Southern District of New York said the FBI interviewed Ms Branson in September 2020, when she told agents she had never been asked by Russian officials to co-ordinate meetings with US officials.
Ms Branson left the US for Russia after that meeting. She appeared on a Russian television programme in 2021 and admitted that she had left the US in fear of arrest.
Prosecutors said she remains at large.
The charges coincide with the US seeking to put pressure on Russian through increasing economic sanctions due to its invasion of Ukraine.
Prosecutors said Ms Branson received tens of thousands of dollars in funding from the Russian government to run an organisation called the Russian Centre New York, which organised the “I Love Russia” campaign in the US and promoted Russian history and culture to US youths.
They also said she is “alleged to have corresponded with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin himself and met with a high-ranking Russia minister” in preparation of those efforts.
The organisation also lobbied officials in the state of Hawaii to not change the name of a formerly Russian fort on the island of Kauai and organised a trip for Hawaiian officials to Moscow to meet Russian officials, prosecutors said.
Such activity is not by itself illegal, but US lobbyists for foreign governments are required to disclose their affiliation to the US Department of Justice.
“Particularly given current global events, the need to detect and hinder attempts at foreign influence is of critical importance,” Mr Williams said in the statement.
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An apartment building damaged after shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine. AP Photo -
A woman puts her head in her hands as she sits on a cot in a shelter, set up for displaced persons fleeing Ukraine, inside a school gymnasium in Przemysl, Poland. AP Photo -
Belarussian and suspected Russian helicopters on the flight line at Machulishchy Air Base outside Minsk, Belarus. AP Photo -
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Families eat in the shelter. Reuters -
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A wounded Ukrainian man waits in the corridor of the central hospital of Mykolaiv. AFP -
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A woman reacts as a train carrying children from Kyiv's Central Children's Hospital leaves the Ukrainian capital on its way to Lviv. Reuters -
A girl sits in an improvised bomb shelter in Mariupol, Ukraine. AP -
An elderly woman is coated in snow as she sits in a wheelchair after being rescued from Irpin. AP -
Belarusian volunteers take part in military exercises at the Belarusian Company base in Kyiv. AP -
Lessa, left, director of a nursery school turned into a refugee shelter, cries as she hugs Olega, who arrived from Kyiv with her baby, near Lviv. EPA -
Ukrainians pass a damaged bridge as they flee from Irpin. AP -
A man carries an elderly woman as people continue to leave Irpin. AP -
A soldier stands on a barricade made of sandbags in central Odesa, Ukraine. Reuters -
A charred Russian tank and captured tanks in the Sumy region. Reuters -
People rest at a temporary shelter for Ukrainian refugees in Przemysl, Poland. AFP -
Ukraine's ambassador to the Netherlands, Maksym Kononenko, third right, and his wife Tetiana Doroshenko, fourth left, attend a meeting of members of the Ukrainian community with Dutch King Willem-Alexander, third left, and Queen Maxima, second left, to discuss the situation in Ukraine, in The Hague. EPA -
A Ukrainian soldier looks at the destruction after shelling in Ukraine's second-largest city of Kharkiv. AFP -
A refugee holds her dog as they wait for trains to Poland in Lviv, Ukraine. Reuters -
A woman ties ribbons in Ukrainian national flag colours in a girl's hair as people wait at a refugee assistance centre in Prague, Czech Republic. EPA -
A Ukrainian soldier carries an elderly woman crossing the Irpin river on the outskirts of Kyiv. AP -
Lena, who had never left Ukraine before fleeing into Moldova, feeds Dasha, 3, soon after crossing the border. Erin Clare Brown for The National -
Refugees without immediate plans to move further inland can stay the night in tents set up on Moldova's side of the border. Erin Clare Brown for The National -
Tatiana and her son wait for a van that will carry them from the Moldovan border to Chisinau. Erin Clare Brown for The National -
Each night, the Palanca refugee camp in Moldova feeds up to 300 people who arrive with no onward plans. Erin Clare Brown for The National -
People pass a damaged bridge while fleeing the town of Irpin, close to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. AP -
A Ukrainian soldier stands guard next to a church in Irpin. EPA -
A firefighter holds the baby of a Ukrainian refugee at the border in Romania. AP -
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks in Kyiv. Reuters -
A Ukrainian soldier at a checkpoint in Kyiv. AP -
Ukrainian activist Ihor Mazur, left, a veteran of the war in the country's east, looks at a night-vision device in Kyiv. AP -
Ambassadors attend a UN Security Council meeting on threats to international security after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in New York. Reuters -
Ukraine's UN ambassador Sergey Kyslytsya holds a paper with an image of Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as he addresses the Security Council in New York. Reuters -
A road sign put up in support of Mr Zelenskyy outside Russia's embassy in Washington. AFP -
Ukrainian refugees at the train station in Lviv, western Ukraine. EPA -
Lethal and non-lethal Ukrainian aid is loaded on to a plane bound for Poland by Canadian soldiers in Trenton, Ontario. Reuters -
Volunteers carry medical aid and necessities at a train station in Lviv. EPA -
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A residential building damaged by Russian shelling in Chernihiv, Ukraine. Reuters -
A man walks past a checkpoint in heavy snow in Lviv. Getty -
A man fleeing fighting in Irpin waits to cross a river after Russian forces entered the city. Getty -
Soldiers assist Irpin residents underneath a damaged bridge as they flee. Getty -
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Men carry a body to a lorry as people flee from the frontline town of Irpin. EPA -
A Ukrainian police officer runs with a child as the sound of shelling echoes nearby in Irpin. AP -
Parents and children struggle to board a train in Lviv. AP
Reuters contributed to this report
