President Barack Obama has retaliated against Russia for cyberattacks aimed at interfering with the 2016 presidential campaign, imposing sanctions on top Russian intelligence officials and agencies, expelling 35 Russian operatives from the US and releasing technical evidence on the hacking.
“All Americans should be alarmed by Russia’s actions,” Obama said in a statement on Thursday. “These data theft and disclosure activities could only have been directed by the highest levels of the Russian government.”
President-elect Donald Trump signalled a possible shift from his previous dismissals of Russian involvement in the hack, saying in a brief statement that while “it’s time for our country to move on to bigger and better things”, he’ll meet with intelligence officials next week “to be updated on the facts of this situation”.
Obama’s actions put Trump in a bind less than a month before his inauguration. He will have to decide whether to reverse course when he takes office on 20 January, which would effectively reject the findings of US intelligence agencies and put him at odds with the Republican leaders in congress who called the sanctions a necessary step. The Russian government denied it was behind the hacking and said it would announce on Friday its response to Obama’s move.
Trump, who has pledged to seek better relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, repeatedly has scoffed at the conclusions of US intelligence agencies that Russia was behind the pilfering and release of e-mails from Democratic National Committee and party officials in order to damage the campaign of Hillary Clinton.
Clinton campaign officials have argued the focus on the steady stream of leaked e-mails distracted from the main issues in the campaign. Trump once said the hacking could have been the work of “somebody sitting in a bed someplace” and told reporters on Wednesday that “we ought to get on with our lives” instead of rehashing the cyberattack.
The Obama administration’s actions raise the possibility of an escalating cycle of finger-pointing and retaliation between Washington and Moscow despite Trump’s pledge to seek better relations. The Russian government emphasised that it will be dealing with Trump starting on 20 January.
Russian reaction
“We believe that these actions by the current administration have two goals: to completely ruin Russian-American relations, which have already hit bottom, and to undermine the foreign policy plans of the future administration and new president of the US,” Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, said on a conference call after the actions were announced.
“We are starting from the fact that these decisions were taken by President Obama, and Trump will be the head of state in three weeks,” Peskov said. “Of course we’ll take this factor into account.”
A White House official, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, said Obama’s successor could reverse the executive actions but suggested Trump may not want to be in the position of letting Russian spies return and giving Moscow a green light to meddle in European as well as US politics. The US has indications that Russia will try to interfere with elections on all levels, the official said.
As part of the administration’s response, the FBI and the department of homeland security also released a report with technical evidence intended to prove Russia’s military and civilian intelligence services were behind the hacking and to expose some of their most sensitive hacking infrastructure. The report dubs the Russian operation “Grizzly Steppe”.
Among those targeted in the sanctions announced by the treasury department were the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency, as well as its chief and deputy chiefs, and the FSB, successor agency to the KGB. Cybersecurity experts in the US have linked the GRU to the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and party officials through a group they have nicknamed APT 28 or Fancy Bear. The US also is sanctioning the Federal Security Service and Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian state and several cyber companies associated with them.
In addition, two Russians accused of commercial theft and fraud using computer networks were hit with sanctions. The two, Alexsey Belan and Evgeniy Mikhaylovich Bogacheve, also are on the FBI’s “most wanted” list.
The sanctions are designed to cut off access to the international financial system.
Those expelled were described by Obama as intelligence operatives working under diplomatic cover, and the US also said it shut down two Russian compounds — one in Maryland and another in New York — used for “intelligence-related purposes”.
In addition to the hacking, Obama cited an “unacceptable level of harassment” of US diplomats in Moscow by Russian security services and police over the past year.
Congressional hearings
Despite Trump’s admiration for Putin, members of congress from both parties have expressed alarm about the campaign hacking. Republican house speaker Paul Ryan and senate majority leader Mitch McConnell both welcomed the sanctions even as they levelled criticism at Obama for how he’s dealt with Russia during his two terms in office.
“While today’s action by the administration is overdue, it is an appropriate way to end eight years of failed policy with Russia,” Ryan said in a statement. McConnell called the penalties against Russian intelligence services “a good initial step” and indicated he would support a congressional review of the hacking.
Republican senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, who’ve been critical of Trump, said they would lead an effort in congress to impose even tougher penalties on Russia.
To set up the sanctions, Obama expanded an executive order he issued in 2015, widening his ability to impose economic penalties due to a cyberattack seeking to interfere with or undermine elections.
The sanctions and expulsions may be matched by covert countermeasures intended to warn Russia that the US is able to breach its most sensitive computer systems, while preserving public deniability.
“These actions are not the sum total of our response to Russia’s aggressive activities. We will continue to take a variety of actions at a time and place of our choosing, some of which will not be publicised,” Obama said.
US relations with Putin’s government have deteriorated over Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine on behalf of separatist rebels and in Syria to bolster the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
The US and European allies imposed sanctions over Russia’s moves in Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea, targeting Russia’s financial services, energy, metals and mining, defence and engineering sectors.
Commenting before the Obama administration’s announcement, Trump transition spokesman Sean Spicer said on Thursday that if the government has any proof of foreign interference in the election, it should make that evidence known. “Right now we need to see further facts based on what we do know and what’s in the public domain,” Spicer told reporters on a conference call.
The Trump transition team released a letter this month to Trump from Putin in which the Russian leader offered holiday greetings and said he hoped to work more cooperatively with the incoming administration.
“A very nice letter from Vladimir Putin; his thoughts are so correct,” Trump said in a statement released alongside the 15 December letter. “I hope both sides are able to live up to these thoughts, and we do not have to travel an alternate path.” — (c) 2016 Bloomberg LP
