President Trump’s administration is blacklisting several Russian military intelligence operatives involved in election interference around the world, the Treasury Department announced Wednesday.
“The United States will continue to work with international allies and partners to take collective action to deter and defend against sustained malign activity by Russia, its proxies, and intelligence agencies,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.
Mnuchin unveiled sanctions on 15 operatives with Russia’s GRU, the military intelligence agency, while also blacklisting a former GRU officer. The announcement underscores U.S. assessments of how Russian President Vladimir Putin uses government and non-state means to take aim at neighboring countries, while promoting his own interests.
“Treasury is sanctioning Russian intelligence operatives involved in cyber operations to interfere with the 2016 election and a wide range of other malign activities,” Mnuchin said. “We are taking action against operatives working on behalf of a sanctioned oligarch, hacking the World Anti-Doping Agency and other international organizations, and engaging in other subversive actions.”
The World Anti-Doping Agency cyberattacks came amid an international investigation into state-sponsored cheating at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. But Treasury also put a spotlight on interference in Western elections through “a broad Russian effort” called Project Laktha. “Since at least 2014, Project Lakhta has used among other things, fictitious online personas that posed as U.S. persons in an effort to interfere in U.S. elections,” the bulletin said.
The former spy sanctioned on Wednesday works for Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch who previously has been sanctioned by the U.S. government for his role in aiding Putin’s foreign policy priorities. He is also the businessman who loaned GOP consultant Paul Manafort, Trump’s future campaign chairman, $10 million.
“Deripaska and [Victor] Boyarkin were involved in providing Russian financial support to a Montenegrin political party ahead of Montenegro’s 2016 elections,” the Treasury Department explained.
Russia, at the time, was opposing Montenegro’s efforts to join NATO.
Simultaneously, the Treasury Department notified Congress of a plan to lift sanctions on three companies controlled by Deripaska pursuant to an agreement to minimize his involvement in the businesses.
“Treasury sanctioned these companies because of their ownership and control by sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, not for the conduct of the companies themselves,” Mnuchin explained. “These companies have committed to significantly diminish Deripaska’s ownership and sever his control. The companies will be subject to ongoing compliance and will face severe consequences if they fail to comply.”
