Follow live the latest news about the war in Ukraine
14 Feb. () –
The owner of the Wagner Group, Russian oligarch Yevgeni Prigozhin, confirmed on Tuesday that he created and financed the Internet Research Agency, a St. Petersburg-based ‘troll farm’ accused of interfering in the 2016 US elections.
“I have never just been the one who finances the Internet Research Agency. I invented it, created it, managed it for a long time,” Prigozhin said in his press service, adding that he did it “to protect the Russian information space ” of Western “propaganda” and “anti-Russian” theses.
Despite the fact that Prigozhin had already stated in November that he had “interfered” in the past in US democratic processes, it is the first time that he has publicly acknowledged his central role in the Internet Research Agency (IRA, for its acronym in English). .
The US State Department asked in July for a reward of up to ten million dollars for information related to the Internet Research Agency, as well as about the Russian oligarch.
“IRA is a Russian entity engaged in political and electoral interference operations. Starting in 2014, the IRA began operations to interfere in the US political system, including the 2016 presidential election, with the strategic objective of sowing discord,” he said. So the Department.
The United States sanctioned the Russian oligarch in 2020, as well as several other people linked to this organization, whose objective, according to Washington, was to help the re-election of former president Donald Trump against the current president, Joe Biden.
Special prosecutor Robert Mueller, in a report on alleged Russian interference, analyzed the role of Russian agents in the 2016 elections, who used social media accounts to interfere in the process.
