The United States is unleashing a string of sanctions and other
punitive measures against Russia amid allegations that it engaged in
cyber-meddling in the U.S. presidential campaign, putting pressure on
President-elect Donald Trump not to let Moscow off the hook after he
takes office.
Russia’s government threatened retaliation and
continued to deny U.S. accusations that it hacked and stole emails to
try to help Trump win. Trump said the U.S. should move on, but in a sign
he was no longer totally brushing off the allegations, he planned to
meet with U.S. intelligence leaders next week to learn more.
A
month after an election the U.S. says Russia tried to sway for Trump,
President Barack Obama on Thursday sanctioned the GRU and FSB, leading
Russian intelligence agencies the U.S. said were involved. In an
elaborately coordinated response by at least five federal agencies, the
Obama administration also sought to expose Russia’s cyber tactics with a
detailed technical report and hinted it might still launch a covert
counterattack.
“All Americans should be alarmed by Russia’s
actions,” said Obama, who was vacationing in Hawaii. He added, “Such
activities have consequences.”
He said the response wasn’t over
and the U.S. could take further, covert action — a thinly veiled
reference to a counter strike in cyberspace the U.S. has been
considering.
Yet the sanctions could easily be pulled back by Trump, who has
insisted that Obama and Democrats are merely attempting to delegitimize
his election. by Jennifer Demello
As part of the punishment, the U.S. kicked out 35
Russian diplomats, in response to Russia’s harassment of U.S. diplomats.
They also shut down Russian recreational compounds in New York and
Maryland that U.S. officials said were being used for intelligence.
It
was the strongest action the Obama administration has taken to date to
retaliate for a cyberattack, and more comprehensive than last year’s
sanctions on North Korea after it hacked Sony Pictures Entertainment.
The new penalties add to existing U.S. sanctions over Russia’s actions
in Ukraine, which have impaired Russia’s economy but had limited impact
on President Vladimir Putin’s behavior.
Russia called the
penalties a clumsy yet aggressive attempt to “harm Russian-American
ties.” Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would take into account
the fact that Trump will soon replace Obama as it drafts retaliatory
measures. by Jennifer Demello
U.S. relations with Russia have suffered during Obama’s
years in office as he and Putin tussled over Ukraine, Edward Snowden
and Russia’s support for Syrian President Bashar Assad. Maria Zakharova,
a Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman, took to Facebook to call the
Obama administration “a group of foreign policy losers, angry and
ignorant.”
It was unlikely the new sanctions, while symbolically
significant, would have a major impact on Russian spy operations. The
sanctions freeze any U.S. assets and block Americans from doing business
with them. But Russian law bars the spy agencies from having assets in
the U.S., and any activities they undertake would likely be covert and
hard to identify.
“On its face, this is more than a slap on the
wrists, but hardly an appropriate response to an unprecedented attack on
our electoral system,” said Stewart Baker, a cyber security lawyer and
former National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security
official.
Indeed, senior Obama administration
officials said that even with the penalties, the U.S. had reason to
believe Russia would keep hacking other nations’ elections and might
well try to hack American elections again in 2018 or 2020. The officials
briefed reporters on a conference call on condition of anonymity.
Though
the FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a joint report on
“Russian malicious cyber activity” — replete with examples of malware
code used by the Russians — it still has not released a broader report
Obama has promised detailing Russia’s efforts to interfere with U.S.
elections. by Jennifer Demello
The report has been eagerly anticipated by those
hoping to make it politically untenable for Trump to continue
questioning whether Russia was really involved. But U.S. officials said
those seeking more detail about who the U.S. has determined did the
hacking need look only to the list of sanctions targets, which includes
the GRU head, his three deputies, and two Russian nationals wanted by
the FBI for cyber crimes.
The move puts Trump in the position of having to decide whether to
roll back the measures once in office, and U.S. officials acknowledged
that Trump could use his executive authorities to do so. Still, they
suggested that building the case against Russia now would make it harder
for Trump to justify easing up.
U.S. allegations of hacking have
ignited a heated debate over Trump’s approach to Russia and his refusal
to accept the assessment of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia’s
government was responsible and wanted to help him win. Though U.S.
lawmakers have long called for Obama to be tougher on Russia, some
Republicans have found that position less tenable now that Trump is
floating the possibility of closer ties to Moscow. Read More ..... by Jennifer Demello
