The US has accused Iran of attempting to interfere in the 2024 presidential election [Getty]
The United States unveiled sanctions Tuesday against Iranian and Russian organizations, alleging they had sought to interfere in the US election.
The groups targeted were the Cognitive Design Production Center, a subordinate organization of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and the Moscow-based Center for Geopolitical Expertise.
“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 for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller added in a separate statement that the United States closely monitors “efforts by malicious actors to influence or interfere in the integrity of our elections.”
“We remain committed to promoting accountability for state-sponsored actors who attempt to undermine public trust in our democratic institutions,” Miller said.
The groups, which are affiliates of the IRGC and the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) respectively, “aimed to stoke socio-political tensions and influence the US electorate,” said the US Treasury Department.
It added that the Cognitive Design Production Center had planned influence operations since at least 2023, to “incite socio-political tensions among the US electorate in the lead up to the 2024 US elections, on behalf of the IRGC.”
The Center for Geopolitical Expertise, meanwhile, was said to direct and subsidize the production of deepfakes — manipulations of genuine audio, photos or video of people to create false likenesses — while circulating disinformation about candidates in the 2024 US election, the Treasury added.
Besides the center, its director Valery Mikhaylovich Korovin was also hit by sanctions.
The sanctions add to earlier ones imposed on the IRGC, GRU and other proxy groups.
Earlier this year, the US government charged that Iranian authorities sought to undermine confidence in US democratic institutions.
They allegedly used “social engineering and other efforts to gain access to individuals with direct access to the presidential campaigns of both parties,” the Treasury said.
In a separate notice, the Treasury Department also announced sanctions Tuesday on Russian judge Olesya Mendeleeva over the detention of former Moscow city councillor Alexei Gorinov.
Gorinov had been convicted for speaking out against Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
“Russia’s manipulation of its legal system silences dissent and suffocates the truth about Russia’s indefensible war against Ukraine,” Smith of the Treasury added.
On Monday, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Russia called for the immediate and unconditional release of Gorinov.
