The U.S. introduced Tuesday that it’s leveling sanctions on entities in Iran and Russia over tried election interference.
The Treasury Department stated the entities — a subordinate group of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and a Moscow-based affiliate of Russia’s army intelligence company, the GRU — tried to intervene in the 2024 elections.
“As associates of the IRGC and GRU, these actors aimed to stoke socio-political tensions and affect the U.S. voters throughout the 2024 U.S. election,” stated the Treasury Department in a news release.
“The Governments of Iran and Russia have focused our election processes and establishments and sought to divide the American individuals by way of focused disinformation campaigns,” Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley T. Smith stated within the assertion.
“The United States will stay vigilant in opposition to adversaries who would undermine our democracy,” Smith added.
A spokesperson for Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York stated that Iran has denied interfering in U.S. elections “on a number of events,” citing previous statements that denied the allegations and calling them “devoid of any credibility and legitimacy,” “basically unfounded” and “wholly inadmissible.”
“Our response stays the identical,” stated Ali Karimi Magham, a mission spokesperson.
Russia’s Embassy in Washington, D.C., denied the U.S. allegations in an announcement, saying “we respect the desire of the American individuals.”
The Treasury sanctions announcement Tuesday stated that the named Cognitive Design Production Center, performing on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, deliberate operations “since a minimum of 2023 … to incite socio-political tensions among the many U.S. voters.”
The Treasury additionally stated the Moscow-based Center for Geopolitical Expertise, “on the path of, and with monetary help from, the GRU,” directed and backed “the creation and publication of deepfakes and circulated disinformation about candidates within the U.S. 2024 basic election.”
That included disinformation that was “designed to mimic respectable information retailers to create false corroboration between the tales, in addition to to obfuscate their Russian origin,” the division’s launch stated.
U.S. intelligence officers stated in September that propagandists in Russia, Iran and China were using artificial intelligence in efforts to deceive Americans and intervene within the 2024 presidential election.
Though not one of the entities sanctioned by the Treasure Department Tuesday are affiliated with China, the division stated in a separate letter Monday that its computers had been hacked in a state-sponsored Chinese operation in “a serious incident.” China denied that allegation.
