President Obama issued a new round of sanctions targeting Russia in retaliation for the cyberattacks against the Democratic National Committee and Democratic campaigns, despite Russian warnings not to do so.
“I have ordered a number of actions in response to the Russian government’s aggressive harassment of U.S. officials and cyber operations aimed at the U.S. election,” Obama said in a statement accompanying the sanctions announcement. “These actions follow repeated private and public warnings that we have issued to the Russian government, and are a necessary and appropriate response to efforts to harm U.S. interests in violation of established international norms of behavior.”
Obama’s response to the sanctions has been long awaited, as he blamed Russia for committing the cyberattacks and leaks of documents that undermined Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Russia has denied any involvement, but the president urged Americans to trust the U.S. intelligence agencies, who agree that Russia was behind the hacks.
“These data theft and disclosure activities could only have been directed by the highest levels of the Russian government,” Obama said. “Moreover, our diplomats have experienced an unacceptable level of harassment in Moscow by Russian security services and police over the last year. Such activities have consequences.”
The sanctions target Russian intelligence officials who work in the cyber unit and tech companies that provide them support. The retaliation also cracks down on Russian intelligence officials who pose as diplomats.
“The State Department today declared persona non grata 35 Russian officials operating in the United States who were acting in a manner inconsistent with their diplomatic or consular status,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said. “The department also informed the Russian Government that it would deny Russian personnel access to two recreational compounds in the United States owned by the Russian Government.”
President-elect Trump will have the authority to rescind the sanctions when he takes office, but Obama’s team thinks that their decision to target Russian intelligence officials will make it politically-difficult for him to do so. “I don’t think it’d make much sense to invite back in Russian intelligence agents,” a senior administration official told reporters on a conference call Thursday afternoon. “The officials who were sanctioned were participating in malicious cyber attacks on U.S. critical infrastructure and interfering [with] our democratic process so, again: Hypothetically, [Trump] could reverse those sanctions, but I don’t think it’d make a lot of sense.”
Russia reacted angrily to hints of the sanctions, saying that Obama had “already destroyed” the U.S. relationship. “The Obama administration launched this misinformation half a year ago in a bid to play up to the required nominee at the November presidential election and, having failed to achieve the desired effect, has been trying to justify its failure by taking it out with a vengeance on Russian-US relations,” Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Wednesday.
Zakharova, anticipating the State Department actions as well, also threatened that Russian President Vladimir Putin would retaliate against American diplomats. “We can only add that if Washington takes new hostile steps, it will receive an answer,” she said. “This applies to any actions against Russian diplomatic missions in the United States, which will immediately backfire at US diplomats in Russia. The Obama administration probably does not care at all about the future of bilateral relations, but history will hardly forgive it for this après-nous-le-deluge attitude.”
But Obama made clear that his administration has more punishment planned. “These actions are not the sum total of our response to Russia’s aggressive activities,” he said. “We will continue to take a variety of actions at a time and place of our choosing, some of which will not be publicized. In addition to holding Russia accountable for what it has done, the United States and friends and allies around the world must work together to oppose Russia’s efforts to undermine established international norms of behavior, and interfere with democratic governance.”
