Voters fill out their ballots at a polling station in New York Metropolis on Election Day, November 5, 2024.
Leonardo Munoz | Afp | Getty Photographs
The U.S. introduced Tuesday that it’s leveling sanctions on entities in Iran and Russia over tried election interference.
The Treasury Division mentioned 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 intrude in the 2024 elections.
“As associates of the IRGC and GRU, these actors aimed to stoke socio-political tensions and affect the U.S. citizens throughout the 2024 U.S. election,” mentioned the Treasury Division in a news release.
“The Governments of Iran and Russia have focused our election processes and establishments and sought to divide the American individuals via focused disinformation campaigns,” Performing Below Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Monetary Intelligence Bradley T. Smith mentioned within the assertion.
“The US will stay vigilant towards adversaries who would undermine our democracy,” Smith added.
A spokesperson for Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York mentioned 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,” mentioned Ali Karimi Magham, a mission spokesperson.
Russia’s Embassy in Washington didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The Treasury sanctions announcement Tuesday mentioned that the named Cognitive Design Manufacturing Middle, appearing on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, deliberate operations “since no less than 2023 … to incite socio-political tensions among the many U.S. citizens.”
The Treasury additionally mentioned the Moscow-based Middle for Geopolitical Experience, “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 common election.”
That included disinformation that was “designed to mimic professional information shops to create false corroboration between the tales, in addition to to obfuscate their Russian origin,” the division’s launch mentioned.
U.S. intelligence officers mentioned in September that propagandists in Russia, Iran and China were using artificial intelligence in efforts to deceive People and intrude within the 2024 presidential election.
Although not one of the entities sanctioned by the Treasure Division Tuesday are affiliated with China, the division mentioned in a separate letter Monday that its computers had been hacked in a state-sponsored Chinese language operation in “a serious incident.” China denied that allegation.
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