The U.S. has accused Russia of interfering with the 2020 election and hacking hundreds of American companies and government agencies. Now, the Biden administration is set to push back with a range of penalties, including new sanctions.
From the The Wall Street Journal:
Using a new executive order, the measure will expand the existing prohibitions on U.S. banks trading in Russian government debt, two of the people said. Previous prohibitions targeting portions of Russian sovereign debt shook Russia’s markets and added to its economic woes.
In addition, the U.S. will expel 10 Russian intelligence officers working under diplomatic cover in the United States, according to The Washington Post. Six Russian companies that have supported Russia’s hacking operation will also be sanctioned.
Russian bonds fell and the ruble dropped the most since December in reaction to the news, Bloomberg reported.
On a phone call earlier this week, Biden warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that his administration would be taking actions “in the coming days” to defend U.S. national interests. Biden also reportedly teased the idea of a summit between the two leaders.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that the U.S. sanctions are illegal and that Russia would retaliate. He stopped short of squashing the idea of the proposed summit.
Appearing on CNN this morning, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan indicated that the Biden administration wants to send a strong signal to Russia without increasing hostility. “[Biden’s] goal is to provide a significant and credible response but not to escalate the situation,” Sullivan said.
The Associated Press provides important background on the motivation behind the new penalties:
The actions, foreshadowed for weeks by the administration, represent the first retaliatory measures announced against the Kremlin for the hack, familiarly known as the SolarWinds breach. In that intrusion, Russian hackers are believed to have infected widely used software with malicious code, enabling them to access the networks of at least nine agencies in what U.S. officials believe was an intelligence-gathering operation aimed at mining government secrets.
Besides that hack, U.S. officials last month alleged that Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized influence operations to help Donald Trump in his unsuccessful bid for reelection as president, though there’s no evidence Russia or anyone else changed votes or manipulated the outcome.
There’s been a war of words between Putin and Biden in recent months. In March, the U.S. announced a smaller set of sanction against Russia after Putin rival Alexei Navalny was poisoned and jailed.