Woman charged with illegally acting as Russian agent lobbied Kauai politicians

The woman who spearheaded a 2019 lobbying effort to retain the Russian name of a historic Kauai fort was charged by the U.S. Department of Justice Tuesday with illegally acting as an agent of the Russian government in the U.S.

According to a federal criminal complaint filed in the Southern District of New York, Elena Branson, aka “Elena Cherykh,” failed to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act and conspired with others to push pro-Russian policies and messages and build relationships with county, state and federal government officials and others.

Branson was the head of several pro-Russia organizations operating in the U.S., including the Russian Community Council of the USA.

On Dec. 17, 2018, Branson emailed a member of the Kauai County Council, identified in the complaint as “Councilmember-1” that read in part “the Russian community in the Hawaiian Islands, Russians in Kauai and Russian Community of the US … are extremely concerned about the renaming of the Russian Fort Elizabeth to ‘Pa’ula’ula,” according to the complaint.

The Star-Advertiser is able to identify “Councilmember-1” from Kauai and Russian news media reports from 2019 as Felicia Cowden, the current chair of the Kauai County Council’s Public Safety & Human Services Committee. She was elected to the council in 2018.

She authored an opinion piece in The Garden Island newspaper on Jun. 17, 2019 titled, “From Russia with Love” that included the sub-headline, “The Kauai delegation to Russia was enriching and successful.”

Cowden did not immediately return Star-Advertiser messages seeking comment.

According to court documents, about 42 minutes before Branson emailed Cowden on Dec. 17, 2018, Branson received a call from a phone number subscribed to in the name of a Russian diplomat in the United States. The call lasted about 31 minutes and ended 11 minutes before Branson e-mailed Cowden.

Three days later, Cowden allegedly emailed an official at the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, copying Branson and others, and wrote, in part, “Constituents of our Kaua’i Russian community have approached me along with the Chair of the Russian Community Council of the USA, here from New York, about their concerns that the reflection of Russia’s political history with Kaua’i and King Kamualii is at risk of being erased,” according to the complaint.

Cowden wrote that Branson and other Russian representatives “shared with me the documents from” the Russian ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov.

About 30 minutes after Cowden sent that email Branson got a call from a Russian diplomat in the U.S. that lasted about 18 minutes, according to court documents.

On Feb. 7, 2019, Cowden allegedly forwarded Branson an email she sent to a staff member of the Hawaii Congressional delegation to check if the Congressperson was in Hawaii and able to meet with “an extraordinary group of people regarding Russian diplomacy,” including Branson, and “two diplomats from the Russian embassy in Washington D.C.,” according to court documents.

The next day, another Russian diplomat emailed Cowden, copying Branson and others, attaching letters from Antonov to the U.S. addressed to to various Hawaii elected officials. Antonov wanted to “express my concern over possible renaming of the Russian Fort Elizabeth” and that “the initiative is aimed at rewriting history of not only Russia, but also the U.S.,” according to the complaint.

Then on Apr. 9, 2019, Branson wrote in a message to a fellow Russian that “she expected to bring a delegation from Hawaii to Vologda, Russia, and that the delegation was working on the Fort Elizabeth renaming project.

Branson needed to bring them to Russia to promote “friendliness” and for a “show,” and that she would need funding to pay for their food, hotel, and expenses, according to the complaint.

On May 22, 2019, Branson emailed Cowden and others a Word document titled “ITINERARY TRIP TO RUSSIA.”

The attached document included an itinerary for a trip to Russia from May 30 to June 6, 2019, which included a visit to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and meeting with the Deputy Foreign Minister, according to the court filing.

On May 30, 2019, Cowden checked in to a Moscow hotel, along with other individuals from Hawaii copied on the email sent by Branson. Cowden’s “home address” was listed in hotel records as “Russian Federation RU,” according to the charges.

FBI agents interviewed Cowden in September 2020 and she allegedly told them Branson came to her office in December 2018 with letters from the Russian government for various Hawaii politicians she wanted delivered.

Branson allegedly told Cowden she believed that the Russian government was being “treated rudely” through the proposed name change at Fort Elizabeth and then encouraged her to run for higher office, according to the filing. She also told FBI agents about her trip to Russia and Branson’s work to set up meetings in Russia with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Department for External Economic and International Relations of the city of Moscow.

Cowden appears to have signed a “thank you” card to Branson “for welcoming the people from Kauai.”

Within that card was a handwritten two-sided Post-it note, shown on the left side of the image. In that note, Councilmember-1 appears to have written, “I am not coming or communicating because I am being watched. It feels wrong for me to be involved that way” and, on the back of the note, “It is on the American side,” according to the federal charging document.

The Garden Island newspaper reported Cowden did take the trip and was required to provide the council with a written disclosure regarding the possibility of a conflict of interest in accepting a donation from the Russian Center of New York in the amount of $2,000-$3,000 for “travel-related expenses.”