☰
HomeLiving Beyond BordersGZERO WorldSignalIn 60 SecondsPuppet RegimeGZERO World PodcastContact UsAbout UsCareersPrivacy PolicyTerms

Questions remain after sanctions on a Russian disinformation network

January 07, 2025
Scott Nover
FILE PHOTO: A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the U.S. Treasury building in Washington, U.S., January 20, 2023.
FILE PHOTO: A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the U.S. Treasury building in Washington, U.S., January 20, 2023.
REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

The US Treasury Department last week sanctioned a Russian organization and its founder for attempting to interfere in the 2024 presidential election using artificial intelligence.

According to a government press release, the Moscow-based Center for Geopolitical Expertise, or CGE, linked to Russia's intelligence agency GRU, built a server to host generative AI tools and content to avoid detection by foreign web hosting companies. The CGE maintained a network of 100 fake news websites created using AI.

The CGE also manipulated a video to produce “baseless accusations concerning a 2024 vice presidential candidate in an effort to sow discord amongst the US electorate,” the Treasury Department said. While officials didn’t specify whether the video targeted Democratic VP nominee Tim Walz or Republican VP nominee JD Vance, a previous report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence indicated that a Russian group was behind a video containing false sexual assault allegations against Walz, who previously worked as a high school teacher in Minnesota.

The Treasury Department sanctioned both the CGE and its director Valery Mikhaylovich Korovin. Russian officials have denied the allegations.

But there are still outstanding questions about the nature of this AI-generated disinformation network: Is this effort part of the existing Storm-1516 propaganda group that Clemson University and Microsoft have previously warned about? Was the Walz video the only one that Russian actors deployed? And did these fake news sites and doctored videos have any measurable impact on the election?

More from GZERO Media

Putin says he supports ceasefire, but with a huge asterisk

A Russian army soldier walks along a ruined street of Malaya Loknya settlement, which was recently retaken by Russia's armed forces in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the Kursk region, on March 13, 2025.

Russian Defence Ministry/Handout via REUTERS

The Russian leader has conditions of his own for any ceasefire with Ukraine, and he also wants a meeting with Donald Trump.

GZERO Explains: Where do things stand for Mahmoud Khalil?

Mahmoud Khalil speaks to members of the media about the Revolt for Rafah encampment at Columbia University on June 1, 2024.

REUTERS/Jeenah Moon

The court battle over whether the US can deport Mahmoud Khalil, the 30-year-old Palestinian-Algerian activist detained in New York last Saturday, began this week in Manhattan. Khalil, an outspoken activist for Palestinian rights at Columbia University, was arrested Saturday at his apartment in a university-owned building at Columbia University by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, and he is now being held in an ICE detention center in Louisiana.

Israel strikes Damascus

The Israeli Air Force launched an airstrike on Thursday, targeting a building in the Mashrou Dummar area of Damascus.
(Photo by Rami Alsayed/NurPhoto)

An Israeli airstrike destroyed a residential building on the outskirts of Damascus on Thursday in the latest Israeli incursion into post-Assad Syria.

Will Germany dump its debt brake?

Lars Klingbeil (l), Chairman of the SPD parliamentary group, and Friedrich Merz, CDU Chairman and Chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, talk at the end of the 213th plenary session of the 20th legislative period in the German Bundestag.

DPA / Picture Alliance

Germany’s government is in a state of uncertainty as the outgoing government races to push through a huge, and highly controversial, new spending package before its term ends early this spring.

The EPA’s new mission: business first, environment last

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, a Republican, speaks as the U.S. vice president visits East Palestine, Ohio, U.S., February 3, 2025.
Rebecca Droke/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

On Wednesday, Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin redefined the agency’s mission, stating that its focus is to “lower the cost of buying a car, heating a home, and running a business.”

Does Canada need to prepare for a US attack?

Paige Fusco

Canada has begun thinking the unthinkable: how to defend against a US attack. It suddenly realizes — far too late – that the 2% GDP goal on defense spending is no longer aspirational but urgent. But what kind of military does it need? To find out, GZERO Publisher Evan Solomon spoke with retired Vice Admiral Mark Norman, the former vice chief of defense staff in Canada and currently a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute.

60% of Germans believe energy transition is necessary – and they want to be more involved in decision-making

BMW Foundation

The energy transition is one of society’s biggest challenges – especially for Europe’s largest economy – according to a survey commissioned by the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt and undertaken by the Allensbach Institute for Public Opinion Research. Sixty percent of those polled believe the energy transition is necessary but have doubts about how it is being implemented. A whopping 63% would like to be more involved in energy-transition decisions affecting their region. The findings strongly suggest that it’s essential to get the public more involved in energy policymaking – to help build a future energy policy that leads to both economic prosperity and social cohesion. Read the full study “Attitudes Toward the Energy Transition” here.

About UsCareers PressContact Us Privacy PolicyTerms of Use
© 2020 GZERO Media. All Rights Reserved | A Eurasia Group media company.