US sanctions Russia and Iran over accusations of election interference | Elections News

The US says branches of the Iranian and Russian governments have been working to create divisions during the 2024 elections.

The United States has announced a new round of sanctions against Russia and Iran, citing alleged attempts to interfere with in their 2024 elections.

ua statement on Tuesday, the US Treasury Department said that a branch of Russia’s military intelligence agency (GRU) and a branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were working on incite domestic tensions.

“The governments of Iran and Russia have targeted our election processes and institutions and sought to divide the American people with targeted disinformation campaigns,” Bradley Smith, the Treasury Department’s acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.

“The United States will remain vigilant against adversaries who would undermine our democracy.”

President-elect Donald Trump eventually won the presidential election in November. His right-wing party, Republicanshe also won control of the House of Representatives and the Senate, which together make up the US Congress.

The Finance Ministry said in a statement that the Moscow-based Center for Geopolitical Expertise (CGE) subsidized the creation of false images and helped spread “baseless allegations regarding the 2024 vice presidential candidate,” without offering further details.

Accusations of meddling in elections countries like Russia have been a political hot spot for years, although critics argue that their influence has been overstated.

Iranian and Russian officials have yet to respond to Tuesday’s accusations, but have previously dismissed similar ones.

“Today’s sanctions build on numerous previous actions by the US government that have stopped Iran’s attempts to undermine confidence in our democratic institutions and Russia’s global malign influence campaigns and illicit cyber activities,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a press release on Tuesday.

The statement said CGE and its director, Valery Mikhaylovich Korovin, were designated for sanctions along with the Cognitive Design Production Center (CPDC), which it said was an affiliate of the IRGC.

Such sanctions would freeze any US-based assets the groups and individuals may have, and prevent US-based entities from doing business with them.