{"id":1815,"date":"2020-12-10T15:44:16","date_gmt":"2020-12-10T15:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=137213"},"modified":"2020-12-10T15:44:16","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T15:44:16","slug":"two-employees-of-foundation-linked-to-russian-troll-farm-released-from-libyan-custody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/10\/two-employees-of-foundation-linked-to-russian-troll-farm-released-from-libyan-custody\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Employees Of Foundation Linked To Russian Troll Farm Released From Libyan Custody"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Two employees of the Moscow-based Foundation for the Protection of Traditional Values with links to a notorious Russian “troll farm” have been released from Libyan custody where they had been held since May 2019.<\/p>\n

The foundation’s chief, Aleksandr Malkevich, who also edits a controversial English-language website titled USA Really, said on December 10 that Russian citizens Maksim Shugalei and Samer Khasan Ali Sueifan had been released and are on their way back to Moscow.<\/p>\n

Libyan authorities said last year that Shugalei, who is also a lawmaker in Russia’s northern Komi Republic, and his interpreter Sueifan, were arrested on suspicion of trying to influence upcoming elections in Libya, which Russian officials have denied.<\/p>\n

Shugalei and the foundation are widely known to have links to the Internet Research Agency, a St. Petersburg-based organization known as the Russian “troll farm.”<\/p>\n

Owned by the Kremlin-connected businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, the troll farm was mentioned repeatedly by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller in his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.<\/p>\n

The foundation says it is a \u201ca nonprofit organization whose activities are aimed at protecting the national interests of the Russian Federation.”<\/p>\n

In 2018, the U.S. Treasury Department slapped economic sanctions on Malkevich, saying USA Really was “posting content focused on divisive political issues but is generally ridden with inaccuracies.”<\/p>\n

With reporting by RIA Novosti and TASS<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two employees of the Moscow-based Foundation for the Protection of Traditional Values with links to a notorious Russian \u201ctroll farm\u201d have been released from Libyan custody where they\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,24],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1815"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1815"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1816,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1815\/revisions\/1816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}