US official indicts 13 Russia nationals on meddling in elections

WASHINGTON/MUNICH, Feb 19 (PRIME) -- Special Counsel Robert Mueller investigating alleged interference in the last U.S. presidential election charged 13 Russian nationals with intentional meddling with U.S. political processes, according to an indictment published on February 16.

The document unveils a scheme in which some of the Russians allegedly came to the U.S. with a deliberate intention of undermining the political and electoral process, including the 2016 presidential election.

The list includes The Internet Research Agency, dubbed the Troll Factory and its employees Yevgeny Prigozhin, Mikhail Bystrov, Mikhail Burchik, Alexandra Krylova, Anna Bogachyova, Sergei Polosov, Mariya Bovda, Robert Bovda, Zheikhun Aslanov, Vadim Podkopayev, Gleb Vasilchenko, Irina Kaversina, and Vladimir Venkov.

No links of U.S. President Donald Trump or any other U.S. citizens with the scheme were discovered.

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel called the U.S. sanctions controversial and having an exterritorial impact.

“We (in the E.U.) perceive these sanctions as more than controversial, they are of an extra-territorial significance,” he said on February 17 at a working breakfast with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

Gabriel added that the E.U. may start lifting the sanctions gradually after deployment of the U.N. peacekeepers in the war-torn Ukrainian region of Donbass.

“I think the idea of the Russian president ... to station 'blue helmets' in Donbass is good. If this is done, one can start a gradual lifting of sanctions,” he said.

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