New Russian cyberoffensives against U.S. interests demand an immediate U.S. sanctions response.
The Russian GRU intelligence service is now targeting conservative think tanks that advocate increased pressure on Russia, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. This trend of conservative targeting correlates with my reporting in July on Russian cyberactivities against Republican midterm election candidates.
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But while there are also other reasons to be concerned about Russian behavior, the particular issue of cyberattacks demands our attention.
After all, those attacks are expressly the ones that Russia conducted in the 2016 presidential election. And while the U.S. government has condemned those attacks as a grievous assault on democracy, it has not imposed adequate consequences for them. These latest attacks mean U.S. deterrent credibility is not-so-slowly perishing. In turn, Russia has added reason to believe it can conduct aggressive operations in other areas.
Putin must be educated to his error.
Fortunately, U.S. allies are likely to support new sanctions or other reprisals. Indeed, on Tuesday, British foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt will tell a Washington D.C. audience that “the United Kingdom asks its allies to go further by calling on the European Union to ensure its sanctions against Russia are comprehensive, and that we truly stand shoulder to shoulder with the US.” And referencing this primary concern of credibility, Hunt will warn that “instead of building up our credibility, we have been weakening it. Those who do not share our values need to know that there will always be a serious price to pay if red lines are crossed — whether territorial incursions, the use of banned weapons or, increasingly, cyberattacks.”
Hunt is right. If we want do stop these Russian offensives, we must act to deter them.
