4 Russian citizens banned for interfering in US elections

 

The US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has banned four people from Russia, accusing them of meddling in the US election.

A statement from the State Department said, "The OFAC has banned Andrew Durkech from attempting to interfere in the 2020 US presidential election under Executive Order 13848."

Explaining the allegations, he said "Darkech has close ties to Russian intelligence agencies and is part of a campaign to influence American voters on Russian-sponsored instructions."

According to the statement, Russia's alleged campaign is aimed at "manipulating the US political process to further its nefarious interests in Ukraine."

The State Department said in a statement that "the campaign was designed to run until election day."

The statement added that "three other Russian citizens were also banned who were affiliated with an Internet research agency known as Lakhta Internet Research, a subsidiary of Russia's Eugenie Pregozan."

The other three U.S. citizens banned by the U.S. Department of Justice are Artem Lifshits, Anton Andreev and Daria Aslonova, in connection with an Internet research agency's campaign to target corrupt currency accounts and influence U.S. citizens. '

"This move is a clear indication that the United States will not hesitate to use all national resources to respond to external stimuli that seek to interfere or manipulate our election in any other way," the statement said.

The State Department said in a statement that the lawsuit was probably funded by the US Attorney General's Office in the Eastern District of Virginia and the US Secret Service.

Russia has been accused of meddling in the 2016 US election, but Russia has denied the allegations.

In February this year, Joseph Maguire, the head of the US Central Intelligence Agency, warned lawmakers in a briefing about Russian interference in the US presidential election in November, and was replaced by US President Donald Trump on February 19.

He said Moscow wanted Donald Trump to win re-election and was interfering in the Democratic Party's primaries.

Both Russia and Donald Trump have vehemently denied the allegations.

Donald Trump said in a statement on the social networking site Twitter that the Democrats in Congress have launched another misinformation campaign while Russia prefers me over the Democrat candidates who do nothing and they have yet to come. Couldn't even count Owa's votes.

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Russian government in Moscow, said the allegations were like "vicious announcements" that would increase as the election approached.

At the same time, he said that these allegations had nothing to do with the truth.

Former FBI Director Robert Mueller's comprehensive report on the last presidential election revealed that Russia had intervened in support of Trump, but did not say that Trump's campaign was run from Moscow.

The US president was later indicted for withholding military aid to Ukraine, which is fighting Russian-backed separatists.

However, under Trump's Republican influence, the Senate acquitted him on February 16, after which the US president fired the officers who provided evidence against him.