Washington – The Biden administration imposed new sanctions on Russian and Iranian entities over efforts to interfere in the 2024 election, the Treasury and State Departments announced Tuesday.
Specifically, the Treasury Department is imposing new sanctions on a subsidiary of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, known as the Cognitive Design Production Center, as well as the Moscow-based Center for Geopolitical Expertise and its director, Valery Mikhailovich Korovin. , are also allies of the Russian Main. Intelligence Directorate.
“The governments of Iran and Russia have targeted our election processes and institutions and sought to divide the American people through targeted disinformation campaigns,” said Bradley Smith, Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury Department for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. “
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said this restrictions The latter aims to disrupt efforts by Iran and Russia to undermine confidence in democratic institutions.
“These actors sought to stoke socio-political tensions and undermine our election institutions during the 2024 U.S. general election,” Miller said in a statement.
The Treasury Department said Russian entities used generative AI tools to distribute misinformation on websites designed to create false confirmations between stories. The Treasury Department said Russia also manipulated the video to its advantage.
Treasury said Iran used social engineering to reach people with direct access to the presidential campaigns of both parties, something the US warned earlier this year was happening.
The designation means that all assets and interests of affected targets that are in the US or under US control are blocked and must be reported. The latest sanctions come as President Biden completes his agenda less than three weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
Before the elections, Biden administration caution Several countries, including Russia, Iran, and China, were trying to improperly influence the US elections. In July, CBS News reported that US intelligence An Iranian conspiracy was revealed To assassinate Trump. Trump ordered 2020 air strike that killed Top Iranian commander General Qasim Suleimani.
And Moscow has long sought to use covert foreign influence operations and cyber activities to attack US national security interests, particularly after the invasion of Ukraine.