Central square in Kiev, Ukraine
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WASHINGTON – The Trump administration on Monday imposed sanctions on seven individuals linked to the Kremlin and four entities for trying to interfere in the 2020 presidential election in the United States.
The US Treasury Department described targeted sanctions as the “inner circle” of Ukrainian lawmaker Andrii Derkach, which was sanctioned last year. Derkach has worked with Rudy Giuliani to dig up damaging information about President Donald Trump’s Democratic opponent, President-elect Joe Biden, and his son Hunter.
“Since at least 2019, Derkach and his associates have been leveraging U.S. media, U.S.-based social media platforms and influential U.S. people to spread misleading and baseless allegations that current and former U.S. employees have been involved in corruption, laundering of money and illegal political influence in Ukraine, “wrote the Treasury in a statement.
Giuliani served as Trump’s personal lawyer, and his efforts to get Ukraine to launch an investigation into the Bidens led to Trump’s impeachment more than a year ago, after the president denied military aid to Ukraine while calling for such an investigation.
“Russian disinformation campaigns targeting American citizens are a threat to our democracy,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin wrote in a statement on Monday, without citing Biden or Trump. “The United States will continue to aggressively defend the integrity of our electoral systems and processes.”
In September, the Treasury imposed sanctions on Derkach, describing him as a “Russian agent active for more than a decade” with close ties to Russian intelligence services.
“At least from late 2019 to mid-2020, Derkach waged a secret influence campaign centered on cultivating false and baseless narratives about American officials in the next 2020 presidential election,” wrote the Treasury in a statement at the time.
Ukrainian lawmaker Andriy Derkach participates in a press conference entitled “Publication of US Embassy pressure facts about Ukrainian law enforcement agencies to interfere in the US electoral process” in Kiev, Ukraine, on October 9, 2019.
Gleb Garanich | Reuters
The Treasury sanctioned three former Ukrainian government officials, Konstantin Kulyk, Oleksandr Onyshchenko and Andriy Telizhenko, as well as Oleksandr Dubinsky, who is a current member of the Ukrainian parliament for publicly affiliating with Derkach.
Kulyk, a former Ukrainian government prosecutor, worked with Derkach to spread false accusations of international corruption, according to the Treasury.
Onyshchenko provided Derkach with edited audio recordings of alleged conversations between former Ukrainian and American officials. The recordings were later released by Derkach to discredit the American authorities and the integrity of the American elections.
Telizhenko, a former Ukrainian diplomat, orchestrated meetings between Derkach and US individuals to discuss how to propagate false allegations.
Dubinsky, who serves alongside Derkach in the Ukrainian parliament, has perpetuated “false narratives” designed to “denigrate US presidential candidates and their families,” according to the Treasury.
The Treasury also sanctioned NabuLeaks, Era-Media TOV, Only News and Skeptik TOV, which have been described as “front media companies in Ukraine that release false narratives under Derkach.”
The Treasury also targeted Petro Zhuravel, Dmytro Kovalchuk and Anton Simonenk, who worked for Derkach.