Voters Fill Out Ballots at NYC Polling Station On Election Day, 2024
The U.S. has announced that it is imposing sanctions on entities in Iran and Russia over attempted election interference. The Treasury Department stated that entities, a subordinate organization of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and a Moscow-based affiliate of Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, attempted to interfere in the 2024 elections.
As affiliates of the IRGC and GRU, these actors aimed to stoke socio-political tensions and influence the U.S. electorate during the 2024 U.S. election. The Governments of Iran and Russia have targeted U.S. election processes and institutions and sought to divide the American people through targeted disinformation campaigns.
The United States will remain vigilant against adversaries who would undermine our democracy, said Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley T. Smith.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York denied interfering in U.S. elections, calling the allegations “devoid of any credibility and legitimacy.
The Treasury sanctions announcement listed the Cognitive Design Production Center, acting on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and the Moscow-based Center for Geopolitical Expertise, at the direction of, and with financial support from, the GRU, as entities involved in the attempted interference. The Treasury said the entities planned operations to incite socio-political tensions among the U.S. electorate since at least 2023 and directed and subsidized the creation and publication of deepfakes and circulated disinformation about candidates in the 2024 general election.
