US issues sanctions against Iranian and Russian entities accused of interfering in national elections

Washington claims foreign actors sought to stoke tension to undermine election process

US presiden-elect Donald Trump's previous presidential campaign came under scrutiny over ties to Russia. AFP

US President Joe Biden's administration on Tuesday issued sanctions against Iranian and Russian entities over allegations that they “sought to stoke sociopolitical tensions” and undermine electoral institutions in the November national elections.

Bradley Smith, the US Treasury's acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said America "will remain vigilant against adversaries who would undermine our democracy”.

“The governments of Iran and Russia have targeted our election processes and institutions and sought to divide the American people through targeted disinformation campaigns,” he said.

Sanctions were imposed against the Cognitive Design Production Centre, a subordinate organisation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The US Treasury alleges that, since at least 2023, the centre has “planned influence operations designed to incite sociopolitical tensions among the US electorate in the lead-up to the 2024 US elections”.

Also included is the Moscow-based Centre for Geopolitical Expertise along with its director, Valery Korovin, accused of working with the Russian Main Directorate (GRU) intelligence service.

Washington claims that the GRU supported Russian use of generative artificial intelligence tools to “quickly create disinformation designed to imitate legitimate news outlets” and “to obfuscate their Russian origin”.

Polarisation and division have come to define the US electoral process in recent years, stoked by both domestic hurdles and the rise of disinformation.

The November national elections resulted in historically narrow margins between departing Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump.

The Biden administration, in its final days before Mr Trump comes into the White House with a strong Republican mandate, said Tuesday's sanctions “disrupted Iran’s attempts to undermine confidence in our democratic institutions and Russia’s global malign influence campaigns and illicit cyber activities”.

Mr Trump's previous presidential campaign came under scrutiny over ties to Russia. In 2020, a Senate panel concluded that his 2016 campaign posed a “grave” counter-intelligence threat, due to its interactions with Russian intelligence services.

The 1,000-page report concluded that Russia had launched an aggressive effort to interfere in the election on Mr Trump’s behalf, detailing how the Trump campaign chairman had regular contact with a Russian intelligence officer and how other Trump associates were “eager to exploit the Kremlin’s aid”.