A Russian American woman has been charged with illegally operating as a spy for a foreign government while in the United States.
Prosecutors filed a complaint Tuesday with Judge Sarah Netburn of the Southern District of New York in which they charged 61-year-old Elena Branson, otherwise known as Elena Chernykh, with illegally acting as a Russian agent and failing to register as a foreign operative. Additionally, she is charged with conspiring to commit visa fraud and providing false statements to agents from the FBI, the filing read.
“As alleged, Elena Branson, a dual U.S. / Russian national, actively subverted foreign agent registration laws in the United States in order to promote Russian policies and ideology,” Damian Williams, a U.S. attorney, said in a press release, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian government have not been shy about acknowledging that pumping out “aggressive propaganda for the Russian diaspora around the world” is important to them.
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In or around 2011, Branson began working as “an agent of a foreign government,” specifically the Russian Federation, according to the complaint.
Branson received approval from the Russian government in or about 2012 to incorporate an organization in New York City called the Russian Center New York, the filing continued. The RCNY became a “Russian propaganda center,” with Branson using the organization to organize a campaign to lobby government officials in Hawaii to not change the name of a Russian fort, according to the complaint.
The accused foreign agent is believed “to have corresponded with Putin himself and met with a high-ranking Russia minister” before the establishment of the RCNY, Williams said.
Branson also made false statements to the FBI around Sept. 29, 2020, in which she “knowingly and willfully falsified, concealed, and covered up” her alleged illegal actions by using tricks, schemes, or false statements, according to the complaint. She fled the U.S. for Moscow just under a month later, officials added.
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Branson left the U.S. for Russia in 2020 and remains at large, the Tuesday press release read.
If convicted, she faces up to 30 years in prison, according to the Justice Department.
