13 Russians charged with interfering in US election as FBI claims plotters WERE in contact with Donald Trump’s camp

THIRTEEN Russians including a businessman close to Vladimir Putin have been charged with meddling in the 2016 United States election.

The indictment, brought by special counsel Robert Mueller, is the most direct allegation of illegal Russian meddling during the election to date.

The indictment their main goal was to sow discord and sway political opinion in Donald Trump's favour during the bitterly contested contest.

By early-to-mid 2016, their efforts are said to have "included" supporting Trump's campaign and disparaging Democrat Clinton.

The charges say the Russians communicated with "unwitting individuals" associated with the Trump campaign and other political activists to coordinate activities.

The US president has already commented on the bombshell claims, tweeting: "Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for President.

"The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong - no collusion!"

Three Russians are accused of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, five of aggravated identity theft and all are believed to have used US-based computers to conceal their Russian origins.

"Defendants, posing as US persons and creating false US personas, operated social media pages and groups designed to attract US audiences," the indictment continues.

It alleges Russians working with the Internet Research Agency, a St Petersburg-based troll farm, purchased internet advertisements in the names of Americans whose identities they had stolen.

They are then believed to have staged political rallies while posing as American political activists and paid people in the US. to promote or disparage candidates.

The indictment says the Internet Research Agency was funded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, dubbed "Putin's chef" because his restaurants and catering businesses once hosted the Kremlin leader's dinners.

The company was also funded by companies Prigozhin controlled, according to the indictment.

On Tuesday, US intelligence chiefs said Russians are continuing in their attempts to meddle in US politics, posing a threat to its mid-term congressional elections in November.

They also said North Korea's nuclear program poses a potential "existential threat" to the United States, and that the time is nearing for Washington to respond to that danger.

The Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and the heads of the CIA, FBI, NSA and two other spy agencies said Moscow's efforts to disrupt US politics are as intense now as they were in the election.

Coats said: "Throughout the entire community, we have not seen any evidence of any significant change."

"There should be no doubt that Russia perceived its past efforts as successful and sees the 2018 US midterms elections as a potential target for Russian influence operations."

Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo said: "We have seen Russian activity and intentions to have an impact on the next election cycle here."

National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers warned that "this is not going to change or stop."

Last year, American intelligence agencies said Russian President Vladimir Putin had directed an effort to influence the 2016 presidential election to boost Donald Trump's chances.

That effort included hacking and releasing emails and documents from the Clinton campaign and filling social media with posts and "news" items aimed at discrediting her.

Trump has repeatedly dismissed the idea that Moscow helped him -- and all allegations of collusion -- as "fake news," and criticised the intelligence agencies for repeating it.

But a large volume of information has surfaced on Russian use of social media to influence public opinion in US public policy debates.