The DOJ has charged a Russian woman working for a close Putin ally with conspiring to interfere in the 2018 midterms

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The Kremlin is pictured above in Moscow on March 7, 2017.

• The Department of Justice announced on Friday that it has charged a Russian woman with conspiring to interfere in the 2018 US midterms.
• The woman, Elena Khusyaynova, is accused of playing a central financial role in a social media influence operation known as "Project Lakhta" that prosecutors say "continues to this day."
• The project is allegedly bankrolled by the Russian businessman Yevgeniy Prigozhin and two companies he controls.
• Prigozhin is a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and he and his companies were charged earlier this year along with 13 other Russian nationals and entities with conspiring to meddle in the 2016 race.

The Justice Department announced on Friday that it has filed charges against a Russian national accused of conspiring to interfere in the November 2018 US midterm elections.

The woman, Elena Khusyaynova, was charged with conspiracy to defraud the US. Prosecutors say Khusyaynova is from St. Petersburg - the Russian city where the Internet Research Agency is headquartered - and is the chief accountant for an influence operation known as "Project Lakhta."

The DOJ described the operation as "a Russian umbrella effort funded by Russian oligarch Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin and two companies he controls, Concord Management and Consulting LLC, and Concord Catering."

Prigozhin and his two companies were charged earlier this year along with 13 other Russian nationals and entities with conspiring to interfere in the 2016 US election. Prigozhin is a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom US intelligence agencies say personally ordered the Russian effort to meddle in the 2016 race.

According to prosecutors, Project Lakhta was involved in creating thousands of email and social media accounts to conduct "information warfare against the United States."

As the woman charge of the operation's finances, the DOJ said she played a critical role in the effort, which allegedly had a budget of more than $35 million and "continues to this day."

Prosecutors added that the financial documents Khusyaynova controlled "include detailed expenses for activities in the United States, such as expenditures for activists, advertisements on social media platforms, registration of domain names, the purchase of proxy servers, and promoting news postings on social network."