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The U.S. has sanctioned several Russian nationals, a Ukrainian lawmaker, and their cryptocurrency addresses for interfering with the country\u2019s electoral process. The Russians are allegedly employees of a troll factory that previously targeted presidential candidates.<\/strong><\/p>\n The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced Thursday that its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has \u201cdesignated four Russia-linked individuals for attempting to influence the U.S. electoral process.\u201d<\/p>\n The Treasury alleges that \u201cRussia uses a variety of proxies to attempt to sow discord between political parties and drive internal divisions to influence voters\u201d with the aim to \u201cundermine democratic countries and institutions.\u201d The announcement explains that in the U.S., \u201cRussia has used a wide range of influence methods and actors to target our electoral process, including targeting U.S. presidential candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n Three of the four people designated \u2014 Russian nationals Artem Lifshits, Anton Andreyev, and Darya Aslanova \u2014 are employees of the Russian troll factory known as the Internet Research Agency (IRA), the announcement notes, adding:<\/p>\n They supported the IRA\u2019s cryptocurrency accounts. The IRA uses cryptocurrency to fund activities in furtherance of their ongoing malign influence operations around the world.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The Treasury Department has previously designated the troll factory and its Russian financier Yevgeniy Prigozhin. The latter was designated for \u201cproviding material support to the IRA\u2019s influence activities against the 2018 U.S. midterm elections.\u201d<\/p>\n Lifshits was also separately charged by federal prosecutors Thursday. He allegedly serves \u201cas a manager in \u2018Project Lakhta,\u2019 a Russia-based effort to engage in political and electoral interference operations,\u201d according to the announcement by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The Justice Department explained that since 2014, \u201cProject Lakhta has sought to obscure its conduct by operating through a number of entities,\u201d including the IRA. Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers described:<\/p>\n Artem Lifshits, conspired with others to steal Americans\u2019 identities and use them to open fraudulent bank and cryptocurrency accounts.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Prosecutors say, \u201cLifshits and the conspirators allegedly used these fraudulently opened accounts to both promote Project Lakhta\u2019s influence operations and for personal enrichment.\u201d<\/p>\n The fourth person sanctioned on Thursday was Andrii Derkach, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament who has been an active Russian agent for over a decade and has retained close connections with the Russian Intelligence Services, the Treasury Department alleges. According to reports<\/a>, he ran a campaign against former vice president and 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin claims that Derkach, and \u201cother Russian agents employ manipulation and deceit to attempt to influence elections in the United States and elsewhere around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n The Treasury Department\u2019s announcement continues:<\/p>\n As a result of today\u2019s designations, all property and interests in property of these targets that are subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The Treasury Department also updated its OFAC\u2019s Specially Designated Nationals And Blocked Persons List (SDN) with details of the four individuals named above and their cryptocurrency addresses. Furthermore, \u201cU.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them,\u201d the announcement emphasizes, declaring that \u201cAdditionally, any entities 50 percent or more owned by one or more designated persons are also blocked.\u201d<\/p>\n According to reports, Russia has refuted the claims that it attempts to interfere in the U.S. elections. Meanwhile, Microsoft has reportedly identified hackers linked to foreign countries, such as Russia, China, and Iran, attempting to infiltrate both President Donald Trump\u2019s and Joe Biden\u2019s campaign camps.<\/p>\n What do you think about the U.S. accusing Russia of interfering in its elections? Let us know in the comments section below.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n The post US Sanctions Russians Allegedly Using Cryptocurrency to Influence Presidential Election<\/a> appeared first on Bitcoin News<\/a>.<\/p>\nOperations to Interfere With U.S. Elections<\/h2>\n
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