Wagner Group owner, Russian oligarch Yevgeni Prigozhin, confirmed Tuesday that he created and funded the Internet Research Agency, a St. Petersburg-based ‘troll farm’ accused of interfering in the 2016 U.S. election.
«I have never simply been the one funding the Internet Research Agency. I invented it, created it, managed it for a long time,» Prigozhin has indicated in his press service, adding that he did so «to protect the Russian information space» from Western «propaganda» and «anti-Russian» theses.
Although Prigozhin had already claimed in November that he had «interfered» in US democratic processes in the past, this is the first time he has publicly acknowledged his central role in the Internet Research Agency (IRA).
The US State Department in July asked for a reward of up to ten million dollars for information related to the IRA as well as the Russian oligarch.
«IRA is a Russian entity engaged in political and election interference operations. Beginning in 2014, IRA initiated operations to interfere in the U.S. political system, including the 2016 presidential election, with the strategic goal of sowing discord,» the Department noted at the time.
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 reelection of former President Donald Trump against 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 accounts on social networks to interfere in the process.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
