Politics –
Russian Retaliation Dealt
Over Election Tampering
President Obama delivered a forceful message to Russian operatives for interfering in the 2016 presidential election, by issuing a string of punishments. Â Meanwhile, incoming White House occupant Donald Trump shrugged it off and urged everyone to simply “move on.”
Politics
Calling the Russian involvement “Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities,” Mr. Obama doled out sanctions to 4 Russian individuals and 5 Russian entities for their roles in election tampering. Additionally, 35 Russian diplomats were ordered to immediately leave the United States.
Among those sanctioned are the GRU and the FSB, which are 2 Russian intelligence services; 4 individual officers of the GRU; and 3 companies that provided material support to the GRU’s operations. The US also separately sanctioned Evgeniy Mikhailovich Bogachev and Alexey Belan, for using cyber-enabled means to misappropriate funds. Both Bogachev and Belan were on the FBI’s 10 most wanted list.
“Russia’s cyberactivities were intended to influence the election, erode faith in US democratic institutions, sow doubt about the integrity of our electoral process, and undermine confidence in the institutions of the US government,” a White House statement said. “These actions are unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”
President Obama added that the Russian individuals were given 72 hours to get out of the US.
“These actions follow repeated private and public warnings that we have issued to the Russian government, and are a necessary and appropriate response to efforts to harm US interests in violation of established international norms of behavior,” Mr. Obama said in the statement.
Russia quickly responded to the sanctions, vowing to respond in kind to any “hostile steps” the US opts to take regarding their alleged hacking. However, spokesman Dmitri Peskov said President Vladimir Putin is “in no rush to make a decision” and is willing to wait until Donald Trump is sworn-in to see if the new president repeals Mr. Obama’s actions.
Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan called the sanctions overdue.
“Russia does not share America’s interests,” Ryan said in a statement. “In fact, it has consistently sought to undermine them, sowing dangerous instability around the world.”
Republican Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham also weighed in and called for even stronger sanctions against Russia.
“The retaliatory measures announced by the Obama administration today are long overdue. But ultimately, they are a small price for Russia to pay for its brazen attack on American democracy. We intend to lead the effort in the new Congress to impose stronger sanctions on Russia,” the 2 senators said in a joint statement.
Donald Trump, who oddly remains skeptical that Russia had anything to do with meddling in the election, is now saying it’s time for the US to forget about hacking allegations and “move on.” However, once a majority of GOP lawmakers urged him to take the charges more seriously, Trump reluctantly agreed to at least meet with intelligence officials later this week to be briefed on the matter.
“It’s time for our country to move on to bigger and better things,” Trump said last Thursday, while still issuing high praise to Russian leader Vladimr Putin. “Nevertheless, in the interest of our country and its great people, I will meet with leaders of the intelligence community next week in order to be updated on the facts of this situation.”
According to a senior Obama administration official, Donald Trump may actually reverse President Obama’s sanctions by executive order, effectively ending any punishment toward the Russians.
Stay tuned…
I'm shaling my head over Trump's response and overall displays of currying favor with Putin!