Russian businessman admits to interfering in U.S. elections

Yevgeny Prigozhin said Monday that he interfered in United States elections—something the Justice Department has suspected, but Prigozhin has previously never admitted to doing. More than that, Prigozhin said he planned to continue his interference. Prigozhin is a Russian entrepreneur with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Department of Justice charged him with meddling in the 2016 election using a covert social media campaign meant to increase division in American public opinion. Prigozhim said in a statement on social media that he would continue to interfere in elections “carefully, precisely, and surgically.”

Why did the DOJ drop the case? The DOJ charged Prigozhin in 2018 and then dismissed the charges in 2020. It said the department had concluded that a trial against a corporate defendant with no presence in the U.S. would likely only reveal sensitive law enforcement techniques. It would likely not lead to any meaningful punishment, the DOJ said. 

Dig deeper: From the WORLD archives, read Harvest Prude’s report in Politics on Russian social media abuse in 2016.