- The State Department offers up to $10 million for info on anyone trying to interfere in U.S. elections.
- It especially wants info on close Putin ally and alleged 2016 U.S. election meddler Yevgeniy Prigozhin.
- Prigozhin allegedly controls and funds the notorious Russian troll farm the Internet Research Agency.
In a sign of concern about midterm political campaigns, the U.S. government on Thursday announced a reward of up to $10 million for information about a group of notorious Russian Internet trolls and any other foreigners trying to interfere in U.S. elections.
The offer by the State Department’s Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program seeks information that leads to the identification or location of any foreign person or entity who is knowingly meddling in U.S. elections, especially anything that could help prevent, frustrate or stop any ongoing or future acts of foreign election interference.
The reward, which is administered by the department’s Diplomatic Security Service, also could be used for information about prior acts of election interference by foreign entities, the RFJ program said in its announcement.
The effort, broadcast via Twitter and other platforms, is part of a broader multi-agency effort by the Biden administration to ensure the security and integrity of U.S. elections, which have been marred in recent years by interference from Russian operatives and other foreign adversaries.
In particular, the State Department said it wants information about the Russia-based Internet Research Agency, or IRA, and its alleged chief funder and overseer, a longtime Putin ally named Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin. It is also seeking information about 12 of Prigozhin’s alleged associates and various business entities he has controlled for allegedly meddling in “U.S. political and electoral processes, including the presidential election of 2016,” according to a news release announcing the reward.
“Do you work for Yevgeniy PRIGOZHIN and/or #InternetResearchAgency? Want to earn up to $10M? LET’S CHAT,” the State Department said in one of several tweets Thursday.
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Paul Rosenzweig, a former senior Department of Homeland Security cybersecurity official, said he expects the bounty offer to have little impact on longstanding U.S. efforts to stop Russia’s efforts to meddle in American elections.
“This is a good step, but it seems highly unlikely they will ever pay out,” Rosenzweig said, in part because Prigozhin and others won’t allow themselves to be caught in a country where the U.S. can arrest them.
“The good news is he will never leave the country again,” Rosenzweig said of Prigozhin, who is sometimes called “Putin’s Chef” because his restaurants and catering businesses have hosted dinners between Putin and foreign dignitaries.
Also, he added, “The reward is another warning shot across Russia’s bow.”
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Prigozhin, various associates and Russian companies he controlled have been wanted by U.S. authorities since at least February 2018 for alleged involvement in the conspiracy to tip the scales of the 2016 election and more recent meddling campaigns.
That year, special counsel Robert Mueller filed criminal charges against Prigozhin and other Russian nationals and businesses as part of his investigation of Russian government influence in the 2016 election and collusion with the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald Trump.
Prigozhin and the other defendants, many of them also named by the State Department on Thursday, allegedly ran a well-funded scheme in which hackers based at IRA headquarters in St. Petersburg, Russia created false U.S. personas and operated social media pages and groups designed to attract large U.S. audiences, according to a 2018 Justice Department criminal complaint.
The Internet Research Agency was able to accomplish this by operating what’s become known as a “troll farm” in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hometown.
U.S. prosecutors allege the “farm” employed hundreds of English speakers who posed as Americans and spent their days and nights spinning up various controversies and conflicts on Twitter, Facebook and other social media websites during the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election.
The U.S. government has also alleged that the IRA accounts were used to advocate for the election or electoral defeat of particular candidates in the 2016 and 2018 U.S. elections — including favoring then-candidate Donald Trump over his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
The FBI, which has offered $250,000 for information about Prigozhin, says he is the primary funder of the IRA and the person who oversaw and approved its political and electoral interference operations in the United States.
Those efforts included the purchase of U.S. computer server space, the creation of hundreds of fictitious online personas and the use of stolen identities from the United States, according to an FBI Wanted poster of Prigozhin.
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