WASHINGTON (AP) – The Biden administration has announced that the US is expelling 10 Russian diplomats and imposing sanctions on dozens of people and businesses, blaming the Kremlin for meddling in last year’s presidential election and hacking federal agencies.
The sweeping measures announced Thursday aim to punish Russia for actions that US officials say cut to the core of US democracy and deter future actions by imposing economic costs on Moscow, including through to focus on his ability to borrow money. The sanctions will certainly exacerbate tensions with Russia, which promised a response, even as President Joe Biden said the government could have taken even more punitive action, but chose not to do so in the interest of maintaining stability.
“We cannot allow a foreign power to interfere with our democratic process with impunity,” Biden said at the White House.
Sanctions against six Russian companies supporting the country’s cyber efforts are the first retaliatory measures against the Kremlin for the hack known as the SolarWinds breach, with the US explicitly linking the breach to the SVR, a Russian intelligence agency. While such intelligence-gathering missions are not uncommon, officials said they were determined to respond due to the broad scope of the operation and the high cost of infiltrating private companies.
The US also announced sanctions against 32 individuals and entities accused of trying to interfere in last year’s presidential elections, including by spreading disinformation. US officials claimed in a released report last month that Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized influence operations to aid Donald Trump in his unsuccessful bid for re-election as president, although there is no evidence that Russia or anyone else changed their vote.
The actions, announced by the government for weeks, point to a tougher line against Putin, who Trump was reluctant to criticize, even as his administration sought sanctions against Moscow. They are the second major step of the government’s foreign policy in two days, following the announcement of the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. So far, in his first months in office, Biden has largely focused on the coronavirus pandemic and economy.
Biden said on Thursday that when he informed Putin days earlier of the forthcoming measures – including the expulsion of the 10 diplomats, including some representatives of Russian intelligence services – he told the Russian leader “that we could have gone further, but I chose not to. so. I chose to be proportional. “
“We want,” he said, “a stable, predictable relationship.”
Still, Russian officials spoke of a swift response, with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warning that “there will be a series of retaliatory measures soon”.
Other US measures are also expected, although the government is unlikely to announce them. Officials have pointed out that their response to Russia would be both seen and unseen.
The sanctions announced Thursday are the latest in a series of actions taken by successive presidential governments to counter Russian behavior considered hostile. It is unclear whether the new US actions will result in changed behavior, especially as previous US actions – both Trump and Barack Obama have expelled individual diplomats during their presidencies – failed to put an end to Russian hacking.
But experts suggest that this latest round, even if it is not guaranteed to curb cyber attacks, could have more resonance due to its financial impact: the order makes it harder for Russia to borrow money by preventing US banks from directing Russian bonds. from the Russian Central Bank. , Russian National Wealth Fund and the Ministry of Finance. It would complicate Russia’s efforts to raise capital and could keep companies quiet from doing business in Russia.
The impact of the sanctions and the US willingness to impose charges will be weighed by Putin in evaluating his next steps, although he is unlikely to make a “180 degrees” turn in his behavior, Daniel said. Fried, a former assistant secretary of state. for European and Eurasian affairs.
“The problem is, how can we curb Putin’s aggression, while at the same time keeping open channels of communication and continuing to work with Russia on areas of mutual interest,” Fried said. “And it seems to me that the Biden administration has done a pretty good job mapping the relationship in exactly this way.”
Eric Lorber, a former Treasury Department official now attached to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said the government is “certainly trying to balance the pressure on Russia and Russia, while at the same time not engaging in full-fledged economic activities. warfare. “
The White House did not impose sanctions on individual reports that Russia was encouraging the Taliban to attack US and Allied forces in Afghanistan, but said Biden used diplomatic, military and intelligence channels to respond.
Last year, reports of alleged “premiums” surfaced, with the Trump administration coming under fire for not raising the issue directly with Russia. Administrative officials said Thursday they had only low to moderate confidence in that intelligence, in part because of the ways the information was obtained, including through interrogations of Afghan detainees.
Among the companies subject to sanctions are websites that US officials say act as fronts for Russian intelligence and spread disinformation, including articles on widespread voter fraud in 2020. The targets include Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian and Ukrainian. political advisor who partnered with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and who was indicted in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
The Treasury Department said on Thursday that Kilimnik had provided “sensitive information about polls and campaign strategy” to Russian intelligence services. That went beyond Mueller’s office, which said in its 2019 report that it could not have ascertained what Kilimnik had done with the poll data after getting it from the Trump campaign.
Also included on the sanctions list were the Kremlin’s first Deputy Chief of Staff Alexei Gromov, several individuals associated with Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman closely associated with the Russian President, nicknamed “ Putin’s Chief ” for serving positions in the Kremlin, and several front companies the US says helped Prigozhin to circumvent previously imposed sanctions.
The US has also imposed sanctions on eight individuals and entities related to the Russian occupation in Crimea.
Biden informed Putin that the sanctions would come earlier this week. Government officials have made it clear in their contacts with Russia that they hope to avoid a “downward spiral” in the relationship, said a senior administrative official who informed reporters about the requirement of anonymity following the announcement of the sanctions.
The two leaders had a tense appeal in which Biden told Putin to “ease tensions” after a Russian military build-up on the Ukrainian border, saying the US would “take decisive action in defense of its national interests” regarding Russian invaders. and electoral interference.
In a televised interview last month, Biden replied “Yes” when asked if he thought Putin was a “murderer”. He said the days when the US “turned back” to Putin were over. Putin later recalled his ambassador to the US, pointing out the American history of slavery and the massacre of Native Americans and the atomic bombing of Japan in World War II.
US officials are still grappling with the aftermath of the SolarWinds invasion, which affected the Treasury, Justice and Homeland Security Departments, among others. The breach exposed vulnerabilities in the supply chain as well as weaknesses in the federal government’s own cyber defenses.
Writers from the Associated Press, Zeke Miller in Washington, Vladimir Isachenkov and Daria Litvinova in Moscow, and AP diplomatic writer Matthew Lee in Kabul contributed.