The list of Russians indicted over of an elaborate plot to disrupt the 2016 US presidential election "does not look like the result of a solid investigation," a Russian investigative journalist said on Saturday

Andrey Zakharov and his colleague Polina Rusyaeva published an October 2017 investigation into the work of Russian Kremlin trolls factory before, during and after the US election.

Zakharov said the list which included the alleged "troll factory" owner Yevgeny Prigozhin, looked "quite random."

Prigozhin is a wealthy St. Petersburg businessman with ties to the Russian government and President Vladimir Putin.

In an extraordinary indictment, the US special counsel has accused 13 Russians of an elaborate plot to disrupt the 2016 presidential election, charging them with running a huge but hidden social media trolling campaign aimed in part at helping Republican Donald Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.

The federal indictment, brought Friday by special counsel Robert Mueller, represents the most detailed allegations to date of illegal Russian meddling during the campaign that sent Trump to the White House.

It also marks the first criminal charges against Russians believed to have secretly worked to influence the outcome.

Moscow - 17 February 2018

1. Various set-up shots with RBC investigative journalist Andrey Zakharov

2. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Andrey Zakharov, RBC investigative journalist:

"In general, in my opinion, the list looks quite random. They simply included in it all the names they could find. According to our information part of these people don't work at the factory now and did not even work there during the (US) elections. So this list reminds us of another Kremlin list submitted to Congress earlier, which is pretty much the whole of Forbes list, copy and pasted list of top Kremlin officials, heads of state companies from RBC magazine rating. So they included everyone they knew about. This does not look like the result of a solid investigation."

3. Various of Zakharov looking through report on Kremlin trolls on RBC website

4. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Andrey Zakharov, RBC investigative journalist:

"In regards to the (Trolls) factory there isn't even any indirect evidence (meaning legal proof of Russian entrepreneur Yevgeny Prigozhin's links to the Internet Research Agency) There are some document leaks published by Anonymous International group and many testimonies by former factory workers who say it's a "common knowledge" that this structure is owned by Prigozhin. They have a lot of legal entities, including IRA (Internet Research Agency) which are known about in the States, but in fact this legal entity has not existed for over a year."

5. Various of Zakharov looking through phone

6. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Andrey Zakharov, RBC investigative journalist:

"(Prigozhin takes care of) the state market for food provision for schools and army, and structures linked to him became large catering services providers for (Russian) Defence Ministry military units. Apart from this, he is believed to be sponsoring the Wagner private military company, whose members fought in east Ukraine and then in Syria, where as we know, they recently suffered a heavy defeat."

7. Various exteriors of RBC building

A 29-year-old gun-rights activist served as a covert Russian agent while living in Washington, gathering intelligence on American officials and political organisations and working to establish back-channel lines of communications for the Kremlin, federal prosecutors charged Monday.

The announcement of the arrest of Maria Butina came just hours after President Donald Trump met Russian President Vladimir Putin and just days after special counsel Robert Mueller charged 12 Russian intelligence officials with directing a sprawling hacking effort aimed at swaying the 2016 election.

Duma Deputy, Vyacheslav Nikonov, said the arrest "sounds very much like McCarthyism."  

Mueller didn't file the charge against Butina, but court papers show her activities revolved around American politics during the 2016 campaign and included efforts to use contacts with the National Rifle Association to develop relationships with US politicians and gather intelligence for Russia.

Reacting to the summit in Helsinki between the two presidents, Nikonov said he was "not too enthusiastic" about its results.

"That was the unfreezing of the relationship that should exist. Otherwise the human race and both our countries are in trouble," he added.

Nikonov said he thought Putin was "sincere" when he suggested that US officials could take part in the investigation of 12 Russians indicted by the US on Friday, for alleged hacking.

Ultranationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky also welcomed this announcement by Putin during the joint news conference with Trump.

"It's absolutely necessary for the investigators to meet, the representatives of law enforcement," he said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Moscow – 17 July 2018

1. Various of Kremlin and Red Square

2.Various interiors of State Duma of sign reading: (Russian) "State Duma"

3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Vyacheslav Nikonov, State Duma Deputy:

"It looks like this 29-year-old girl was detained because, a) she's Russian, b) she knows Alexander Torshin, the former senator who now works in the Central Bank and c) that she was for improving the relationship between Russia and the United States without being registered as a foreign agent. To me it sounds very much like McCarthyism. Where is American democracy?"

ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY

FILE: Moscow – 21 April 2013

4. Various STILLS of Maria Butina taking part in a gun rights rally

ASSOCIATED PRESS – AP CLIENTS ONLY

Moscow – 17 July 2018

5. Cutaway of State Duma

6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Vyacheslav Nikonov, State Duma Deputy:

"Well, we're not too enthusiastic about the results of the summit. That was the unfreezing of the relationship that should exist. Otherwise the human race and both our countries are in trouble."

7. Cutaway of State Duma

8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Vyacheslav Nikonov, State Duma Deputy:

"I think he was absolutely sincere saying that the Mueller commission guys can come to Moscow and interrogate them, together with Russian investigators, according to the procedures which exist."

9. Cutaway of State Duma

10. SOUNDBITE: (Russian) Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the unltranationalist "Liberal Democratic Party of Russia":

"It's absolutely necessary for the investigators to meet, the representatives of law enforcement. If there's suspicion in America in relation to employees of our intelligence bodies, them let them come here. Come here, meet, discuss, and all questions will be decided in the right way. But just to make announcements that allegedly some kind of group, somewhere did something – that's just gossip."

11. Various of people on Manezh Square

12. SOUNDBITE: (Russian) Ludmilla Giorgievna, Moscow resident:

"I think yes (that the Trump-Putin summit will change Russia-US relations) – we hope for the best. They said that the Cold War is over. It's getting warmer. So we hope that our generation will see better times. And our grandchildren, even better."

13. Cutaway of people on Manezh Square

14. SOUNDBITE: (Russian) Dmitry Kolokosky, Moscow resident:

"I really hope so (that relations will improve) I try to be positive about things. Considering that we had such a successful World Cup, I'm hoping that things will go in that direction."

15. Various of Red Square