MOSCOW — A top Russian diplomat says the U.S. allegation that a Russian woman helped oversee a social media effort to influence the 2018 U.S. midterm elections is shameful. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov made the comments in a statement Saturday, a day after U.S. prosecutors filed a criminal complaint against Elena Khusyaynova. The complaint says she helped oversee the finances at a so-called troll farm aiming to influence U.S. politics through social media postings. The newspaper also reported that her son, Timur, had a channel on YouTube that he used to post videos critical of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. After YouTube shut down the channel, he established a presence on Vkontakte, a social media site similar to Facebook, the newspaper said.

Source: National Post October 20, 2018 10:07 UTC