{"id":1367688,"date":"2022-03-09T19:56:01","date_gmt":"2022-03-10T00:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1367688"},"modified":"2022-03-09T19:56:04","modified_gmt":"2022-03-10T00:56:04","slug":"dual-national-accused-of-acting-as-illegal-russian-agent-in-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dual-national-accused-of-acting-as-illegal-russian-agent-in-u-s\/","title":{"rendered":"Dual National Accused of Acting as Illegal Russian Agent in U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdual-national-accused-of-acting-as-illegal-russian-agent-in-u-s%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1367688&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">The United States Justice Department announced Tuesday that a dual U.S. and Russian citizen, who is said to have corresponded with Vladamir Putin, had been charged for allegedly working as an unregistered Russian agent.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of New York <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-sdny\/pr\/dual-us-russian-national-charged-acting-illegally-russian-agent-united-states\">issued<\/a> a press release stating it had filed a criminal complaint against Elena Branson, 61, who has not been arrested as she allegedly fled America for Russia in 2020. The charges come amid high tensions between the United States and Russia, following Russia\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/europe\/2022\/02\/24\/pics-russia-attacks-ukraine-as-ground-troops-lead-invasion-force\/\">invasion<\/a> of Ukraine and the U.S. sanctions that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/news\/russians-brace-for-sanctions-as-their-favourite-shops-close\/\">followed<\/a>. According to the release, Branson faces numerous charges, including \u201cacting and conspiring to act in the United States illegally as an agent of the Russian government, willfully failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (\u2018FARA\u2019), as well as conspiring to commit visa fraud and making false statements to the FBI.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>Branson allegedly began her work on behalf of the Russian government as early as at least 2011 \u201cto\u00a0advance Russian interests in the United States,\u201d the Justice Department states. Branson was tasked with setting up meetings for \u201cRussian officials\u00a0to lobby U.S. political officials and businesspersons, and by operating organizations in the United States for the purpose of publicly promoting Russian government policies,\u201d the Justice Department alleges. Moreover, she failed to alert the Attorney general of her status as an agent by registering under FARA, the release stated.<\/p>\n<p>In or about in 2012, Branson incorporated the \u201cRussian Center New York\u201d (RCNY), headquartered in Manhattan, after receiving a green light from top Russian government officials, the Justice Department states in the release, citing the criminal complaint. Damien Williams,\u00a0the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Branson allegedly corresponded with then-Prime Minister Vladamir Putin \u201cand met with a high-ranking Russia minister before founding\u201d the RCNY, which Williams dubbed a \u201cpropaganda center.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_20175426\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2022\/03\/then-Prime-Minister-Vladimir-Putin.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dual citizen and accused of acting as an illegal Russian agent, Elena Branson, allegedly corresponded with then-Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, pictured above, around the time the Russian Center, in Manhattan, New York, opened. (Photo taken on February 17, 2011) (AP Photo\/ RIA Novosti, Alexei Nikolsky, pool)<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Branson \u201cand the RCNY have received tens of thousands of dollars in funding from the Russian Government and have taken direct orders from Russian officials concerning events and public messaging,\u201d the complaint <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-sdny\/press-release\/file\/1481101\/download\">alleges<\/a>. Throughout her time as an agent, the Russian Embassy in Wahington, DC, allegedly gave Branson both direction and funding. Branson, who allegedly worked to conceal that she received funding and orders from Russian officials, told co-conspirators to steer clear of \u201cusing language in describing their activities that would draw attention to FARA registration obligations for herself and the organizations,\u201d the Justice Department stated.<\/p>\n<p>Using the RCNY in 2019, Branson allegedly carried out a campaign to lobby Hawaiian Officials over a potential name change of the last remaining former Russian fort in the Hawaiian islands on the island of Kauai. Branson allegedly \u201cprovided Hawaiian officials with messages from Russian government officials and organized a trip to Moscow for Hawaiian officials responsible for the potential name change to meet with high-ranking Russian government personnel,\u201d the release asserts.<\/p>\n<p>Branson also served as Russian Community Council of the USA (KSORS) Chair. KSORS is partly funded by Russian government institutions and coordinated a campaign called \u201cI Love Russia.\u201d \u201cBranson\u2019s\u00a0promotional outreach, including an \u2018I Love Russia\u2019 campaign aimed at American youths, exemplifies her attempts to act at the behest of the Russian government to illegally promote its interests in the United States,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n<p>Branson\u2019s alleged illegal work also entailed coordinating meetings between U.S. government officials and business executives with Russian officials, such as a March 2016 meeting involving a state senator from New York, managers from multiple U.S. companies, and the head of Russia\u2019s Department of Foreign Affairs Economic Activity and International Relations.<\/p>\n<p>Branson allegedly took part in a fraudulent visa scheme, where she would provide information to Russian officials regarding RCNY events to use \u201cas\u00a0false pretenses to obtain visas to enter the United States,\u201d the Justice Department notes.<\/p>\n<p>In late September of 2020, the FBI interviewed Branson, who they say falsely claimed Russian officials never asked her to set up meetings with American officials or business executives, the Justice Department said. Following the interview, she left the United States and flew to Russia on approximately October 20, 2020, the complaint states. On October 15 of last year, she appeared on Russian television and said she left the United States as she became concerned she would be arrested, according to the Justice Department.<\/p>\n<p>The combined charges carry a maximum sentence of 35 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The United States Justice Department announced Tuesday that a dual U.S. and Russian citizen, who is said to have corresponded with Vladamir Putin, had been charged for allegedly working as<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1367688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1367688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1367688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1367688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1367688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1367688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1367688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}