Who is Elena Branson? Russian national charged with illegally acting as Russian agent

A 61-year-old woman who opened the Russian Center New York and helped organise an “I Love Russia” campaign illegally worked as a Russian government agent while conducting business in the US for nearly a decade, according to federal prosecutors.

Elena Branson – a dual citizen of the US and Russia – was charged on 8 March with acting as an agent of a foreign government without notifying US authorities, conspiring to commit visa fraud, making false statements to the FBI, and failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. She remains at large.

The US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York alleges that Ms Branson corresponded with high-ranking Russian officials, including Vladimir Putin, to open a Russian “propaganda center” in New York City, for which she “received tens of thousands of dollars in funding from the Russian government” for events and messaging at the direction of Russian officials, without registering her role as a foreign agent with US authorities, according to the government’s complaint.