US Sanctions Ukrainian Network Over 2020 Election Interference

Glob­al media is report­ing that the US has imposed sanc­tions on Ukrain­ian indi­vid­u­als and enti­ties, accus­ing them of U.S. elec­tion inter­fer­ence. Accord­ing to a Reuter’s report,  those involved are accused of being part of a net­work asso­ci­at­ed with Ukrain­ian par­lia­men­tar­i­an Andriy Derkach, described as a pro-Russ­ian law­mak­er who was sanc­tioned by the US last year in con­nec­tion with accu­sa­tions he tried to inter­fere in the 2020 US elections:

Jan­u­ary 11, 2021 The Unit­ed States on Mon­day imposed sanc­tions on sev­er­al Ukrain­ian indi­vid­u­als and enti­ties, accus­ing them of U.S. elec­tion inter­fer­ence and asso­ci­at­ing with a pro-Russ­ian Ukrain­ian law­mak­er linked to efforts by Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s allies to dig up dirt on Pres­i­dent-elect Joe Biden and his son.  “Russ­ian dis­in­for­ma­tion cam­paigns tar­get­ing Amer­i­can cit­i­zens are a threat to our democ­ra­cy,” Trea­sury Sec­re­tary Steven Mnuchin, an ally of Trump who last week con­demned the vio­lence at the U.S. Capi­tol by a pro-Trump mob, said in a state­ment. The U.S. Trea­sury Depart­ment accused the sev­en indi­vid­u­als and four enti­ties of involve­ment in a Rus­sia-linked for­eign influ­ence net­work asso­ci­at­ed with Ukrain­ian par­lia­men­tar­i­an Andriy Derkach. The pro-Russ­ian law­mak­er was hit with sanc­tions by the U.S. gov­ern­ment in Sep­tem­ber over accu­sa­tions he tried to inter­fere in the 2020 U.S. elec­tion won by Biden. The action freezes any U.S. assets of those black­list­ed and gen­er­al­ly bars Amer­i­cans from doing busi­ness with them.

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Derkach has been a key fig­ure in pro­mot­ing unsub­stan­ti­at­ed alle­ga­tions that Hunter Biden improp­er­ly used his influ­ence with his father — vice pres­i­dent at the time — to help Buris­ma, a Ukrain­ian ener­gy com­pa­ny on whose board he sat, and that Joe Biden improp­er­ly pres­sured Ukraine to fire a top pros­e­cu­tor who had inves­ti­gat­ed the firm. These alle­ga­tions, intend­ed to harm Biden’s can­di­da­cy, have been seized upon by Trump, his per­son­al lawyer Rudy Giu­liani and some Repub­li­can lawmakers.

Read the rest here.

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) report­ed last year that US intel­li­gence agen­cies had warned the White House  Russ­ian intel­li­gence offi­cers were using Giu­liani as a means to trans­mit dis­in­for­ma­tion aimed at under­min­ing the pres­i­den­tial cam­paign of then Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­date Joe Biden