The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on Russia for its alleged interference in the 2020 presidential election and its alleged role in SolarWinds’ large-scale cyberattack, in addition to imposing penalties in connection with Russian actions in Ukraine and Afghanistan.
President Joe Biden’s administration also announced the expulsion from the United States of ten members of the Russian diplomatic mission in Washington, including members of the intelligence services.
In addition, the White House formally accused Russia’s Foreign Espionage Service (SVR) of “perpetrating” the massive cyber-attack that allegedly began in 2019 and infiltrated the systems of the US government and large corporations through a SolarWinds company program.
Until now, Washington had only spoken about its suspicion that Moscow was behind that hacking, but this Thursday it assured the intelligence community that it was “completely certain” it was the SVR.
“By endangering SolarWinds’ software supply chain, SVR was able to spy or potentially manipulate more than 16,000 computer systems around the world,” the White House said.
In total, Washington on Thursday sanctioned 6 Russian companies for their cyber-espionage activities, 32 Russian organizations and individuals for electoral interference; and 8 persons and entities for the Russian occupation of the Ukrainian Crimea peninsula.
The latter measures regarding the “occupation and repression” of Crimea come at a time of strong tensions between Russia and Ukraine, and were taken in coordination with the European Union (EU), the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada, the White House.
In addition, the US Treasury has issued an injunction prohibiting US financial institutions from participating in the main bond market issued by the Russian central bank and other institutions in the country as of June 14, in an effort to restrict their debt sales. .
The sanctions against Russia are in response to “actions taken by its government and its intelligence services against the sovereignty and interests of the United States,” the White House said in a statement.
Among them, he cited the alleged rewards Russia offered Afghan militias in 2019 for the deaths of US soldiers, which were revealed by The New York Times last year.
Biden concluded that all of Russia’s actions constitute a “national emergency” for the United States, a statement that activates the power to impose a wide variety of sanctions on Moscow, now and in the future.
The White House said it does not want to continue on a “negative trajectory” with Russia, despite the sanctions, so Biden has proposed to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to hold a bilateral summit in a third country soon.