US sanctions Russia and Iran over accusations of election interference
Al JazeeraThe US says affiliates of the Iranian and Russian governments worked to sow division during the 2024 elections. In a statement on Tuesday, the US Department of the Treasury said an affiliate of Russia’s military intelligence agency and a subsidiary of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had worked to stoke domestic tensions. “The Governments of Iran and Russia have targeted our election processes and institutions and sought to divide the American people through targeted disinformation campaigns,” Bradley Smith, the Treasury’s acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in the statement. The Treasury Department’s statement alleges that the Moscow-based Centre for Geopolitical Expertise subsidised the creation of misleading images and helped spread “baseless accusations concerning a 2024 vice presidential candidate” without offering further details. “Today’s sanctions build on numerous previous US government actions that have disrupted 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 news release on Tuesday.