How Vladimir Putin must laugh.
President Joe Biden entered office pledging to strengthen allies against Russian aggression and to deter further Russian hostility. Instead, Biden has played near pitch-perfectly into Putin’s hands.
On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that Evil Corp., a major Russian ransomware outlet, is believed by U.S. officials to be behind last week’s ransomware hack of Sinclair, a major broadcasting conglomerate. Sinclair’s news, sports, and advertising programming has been disrupted across the nation.
But don’t worry, Joe’s on the case. The president can simply do what he’s been doing since entering office and ask Vladimir to crack down on his hackers.
Shockingly (not really), Biden’s good cop-good cop routine isn’t working with the KGB colonel. This failure is unsurprising for two reasons.
First, because Putin is an opportunist deterred only by action and driven personally by his belief that the United States is Russia’s main enemy. As with other major ransomware attacks this year, such as the Colonial Pipeline hack, which caused havoc to energy supplies on the East Coast, Putin revels in any activity that undermines U.S. social stability. Targeting a conservative broadcaster such as Sinclair, Putin might even hope to further U.S. partisan divides.
Second, because Putin’s people oversee these attacks. For evidence of this dynamic, we need look no further than Evil Corp.’s CEO, Maksim Yakubets. Announcing sanctions in 2019 against Yakubets, the U.S. Treasury Department noted that Evil Corp. “provides direct assistance to the Russian government’s malicious cyber efforts, highlighting the Russian government’s enlistment of cybercriminals for its own malicious purposes.”
Indeed.
But not only do these ransomware groups operate on the Kremlin’s behalf, they also provide a cut of their ransom takings to Putin’s security elite. The ransomware groups understand that the Federal Security Service (FSB) is their ultimate master. Just ask FSB Deputy Director Sergei Korolyov. Or take a look at what’s now happening to Ilya Sachkov.
A top Russian cyber entrepreneur, Sachkov recently learned what happens when you speak out against the FSB ransomware racket. Sachkov used a 2020 meeting with Putin’s prime minister to chastise the Kremlin for allowing Yakubets to live the high life in the open (he likes flashy cars). Sachkov pointed out that this doesn’t go unnoticed around the world. In September, Sachkov was charged with treason.
This Sinclair hack should be the nail in the coffin of the Biden administration’s claim that these hackers have no connection to the Kremlin — and that the administration is doing everything it can to resolve the issue. Yes, the ransomware groups operate separately from the formal authority and action of the Kremlin security apparatus. But my sources tell me that only a limited number of less capable hacking groups actually operate outside of Kremlin authority. Those sources also tell me that groups like Evil Corp. do not launch major attacks on the U.S. without the say-so of their Kremlin masters.
Biden’s appeasement of Russia is now a trend.
It’s a trend that might have more in the media clamoring of collusion were the previous president still in office (Trump’s delusional affection for Putin notwithstanding). Take one other example: the intersection of energy and politics.
More deferential to Russian energy blackmail than U.S. energy security, Biden killed the Keystone XL pipeline but then approved Putin’s Nord Stream II energy pipeline. The administration lies by saying that the pipeline was 90% complete so retaining sanctions on Nord Stream II made little sense. They fail to mention, however, that the construction and verification of the pipeline had come to a stop, and a 90%-completed pipeline is about as useful as a football drive that ends at the 10-yard line. As was entirely predictable, Putin is now using the approaching winter to wage an energy war on Europe.
Perhaps Putin isn’t laughing at Biden. Perhaps he’s toasting him with fine vodka.
