President Joe Biden is clamping down on Russia over a host of aggressive acts, marking a pivot from former President Donald Trump‘s sometimes light approach to the U.S. adversary and its president, Vladimir Putin.
Biden announced long-awaited sanctions Thursday morning, citing Russia‘s efforts to undermine U.S. elections and launch cyberattacks against the U.S. government and businesses, as well as its treatment of dissidents and journalists, such as Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
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Biden signed an executive order Thursday morning banning U.S. financial institutions from dealing with and lending to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation, and the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation in ruble and non-ruble denominated funds and primary market bonds, effective June 14.
A senior administration official told reporters the sanctions were “a clear signal to the Russian government that we will not accept destabilizing behavior that harms the United States, our people, our allies and partners, and that we will respond with economically impactful costs.”
Treasury Department sanctions were also imposed on 32 entities and individuals over Russian attempts to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election and other forms of interference.
The Treasury Department, on Thursday, identified six technology companies it says worked with the Russian intelligence service’s cyber program. That is in addition to the U.S. expulsion of 10 Washington-based Russian diplomats, some of whom the U.S. claims are spy service representatives.
Another eight entities and individuals were sanctioned over Russia’s occupation of Crimea.
Senior administration officials described Thursday’s executive action as part of Biden’s “seen” reaction to what the White House has deemed as Russia’s malicious foreign activity. They called the order “tailored and proportionate” to the complicated, protracted situation.
Separately, administration officials are dealing, through diplomatic, military, and intelligence channels, with reports Russia offered the Taliban bounties for killing Americans in Afghanistan.
“The United States intelligence community assesses with low to moderate competence that Russian intelligence officers sought to encourage Taliban attacks against U.S. and coalition personnel in Afghanistan in 2019, and perhaps earlier, including through financial incentives and compensation,” an official said.
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Biden’s executive order comes weeks after the president promised in an interview that Russia would “pay” for its election meddling and after he spoke with Putin this week for the second time since his inauguration.
During the call, Biden floated to Putin a one-on-one summit in a neutral country. The Kremlin has yet to say whether the hard-line Russian leader will take up the invitation.
“It is the responsibility of the leaders of significant countries like Russia and the United States to sit together to find a stable and effective way forward to stop any kind of escalatory cycle from spinning out of control,” an administration official said Thursday.
