A former manager of the Internet Research Agency, the Russian “troll factory” and propaganda operation accused of meddling in the 2016 election, has lived in the United States for the past two and a half months, according to a Russian news outlet.
Agata Burdonova, 31, was an English-language specialist who worked as a manager at the IRA,
according to TV Rain, an independent Russian news agency that has broken a number of stories about the Internet Research Agency. She moved to Bellevue, Washington, on Dec. 7, and has thoroughly documented her move on her social media accounts. She has posted pictures of her boarding pass and Russian passport, a selfie with her husband at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, and photos of Seattle’s Space Needle, a suburban American neighborhood, and several Washington parks.
TV Rain said she denied that she had worked for the Internet Research Agency and refused to comment on her move to the United States. She did not immediately respond to questions sent by BuzzFeed News to her accounts on Facebook and on a similar Russian social media platform, VK.
Burdonova is not among the 13 Russians that the Department of Justice’s special counsel has accused of violating a series of US laws in connection to the 2016 election.