Voters fill out their ballots at a polling station in New York City on Election Day, November 5, 2024.
Leonardo Muñoz | AFP | Getty Images
The United States on Tuesday announced sanctions against Iranian and Russian entities for trying to interfere in the election.
The U.S. Treasury Department said the entities – affiliates of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Moscow-based affiliate of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency – sought to interfere with Iran’s nuclear program. 2024 election.
“As affiliates of the IRGC and the GRU, these actors aimed to stoke sociopolitical tensions and influence American voters during the 2024 U.S. elections,” the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement. Press release.
“The governments of Iran and Russia are targeting our election processes and institutions and seeking to divide the American people through targeted disinformation campaigns,” said Bradley T. Smith said in a statement.
“The United States will remain vigilant against adversaries who undermine our democracy,” Smith added.
A spokesman for Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York said Iran had “repeatedly” denied interfering in the U.S. election and cited past statements denying the accusations, calling the accusations “devoid of any credibility or legitimacy” and “completely baseless” and ” Totally unacceptable”.
“Our response remains unchanged,” mission spokesman Ali Karimi Magom said.
The Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. Treasury Department’s sanctions announcement on Tuesday said the Cognitive Design Production Center, acting on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, plans to “spark sociopolitical tensions among U.S. voters starting at least in 2023.”
The U.S. Treasury Department also said that the Moscow-based Center for Geopolitical Expertise “with the guidance and financial support of the GRU” directs and funds the “production and distribution of deepfakes and the spread of disinformation about U.S. candidates for the 2024 election.” .
That included disinformation “designed to imitate legitimate news outlets, create false corroboration between reports, and obfuscate their Russian origins,” the department’s press release said.
U.S. intelligence officials said in September that Russian, Iranian and Chinese propagandists Using artificial intelligence Attempting to deceive Americans and interfere in the 2024 presidential election.
Although none of the entities sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday were Chinese, the department said in a separate letter on Monday that Its computer was hacked A “major incident” occurred during a state-sponsored Chinese operation. China denies the accusation.
