WASHINGTON (AP) – The Biden administration has announced that the United States will expel ten Russian diplomats and impose sanctions on dozens of people and businesses, blaming the Kremlin for interference in last year’s presidential election and piracy. federal agencies.
The general measures announced on Thursday are aimed at punishing Russia for actions that according to US officials reduced the core of American democracy and deter future acts by imposing economic costs on Moscow, even targeting its capacity. to apply for loans. Sanctions will exacerbate tensions with Russia, which promised a response, even as President Joe Biden said the administration could have taken even more punitive action, but chose not to do so to maintain stability. .
“We cannot allow a foreign power to interfere with impunity in our democratic process,” Biden told the White House.
Sanctions against six Russian companies that support the country’s cyber efforts represent the first retaliatory measures against the Kremlin for piracy familiarly known as SolarWinds’ breach, and the U.S. explicitly links the intrusion to the SVR, an agency of ‘Russian intelligence. While these intelligence gathering missions are not uncommon, officials said they were determined to respond because of the wide scope of the operation and the high cost of intrusion on private companies.
The United States also announced sanctions on 32 people and entities accused of attempting to interfere in last year’s presidential election, including the dissemination of information. U.S. officials alleged in a declassified report last month that Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized influence operations to help Donald Trump in his failed re-election bid as president, although there is no evidence that Russia or anyone else changed the vote.
The actions, foreshadowed by the administration for weeks, point to a tougher line against Putin, whom Trump was reluctant to criticize even as his administration pursued sanctions against Moscow. They are the administration’s second major foreign policy move in two days, following the announcement of the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. So far, Biden has focused heavily on the pandemic and coronavirus economy during his first months in office.
Biden said Thursday that when he informed Putin days before the next measures, which included the expulsion of the ten diplomats, some of them representatives of the Russian intelligence services, told the Russian leader that “we could have gone further. there, but I decided not to do so. I chose to be proportionate. “
“We want,” he said, “a stable and predictable relationship.”
However, Russian officials spoke of a quick response, and Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned that “a series of retaliatory measures will arrive in the near future.”
Other US measures are also expected, although the administration is unlikely to announce them. Officials have been advising that his response to Russia would be in a visible and invisible way.
The sanctions announced on Thursday are the latest in a series of actions taken by successive presidential administrations to counter Russian behavior considered antagonistic. It is unclear whether new US action will lead to changes in behavior, especially since previous U.S. measures, both Trump and Barack Obama expelled individual diplomats. during their presidencies – they have failed to end Russian piracy.
But experts suggest that this latest round, while not guaranteed to curb cyberattacks, may have more repercussions because of its financial impact: the order makes it possible for Russia to borrow more money by preventing US banks from buying Russian bonds directly to the Russian Central Bank, Russian National Wealth Fund and Ministry of Finance. It could complicate Russian efforts to raise capital and give breaks to companies to do business in Russia.
The effect of sanctions and the U.S. willingness to impose costs will be weighed on Putin as he evaluates his next steps, though he is unlikely to make a “180” pivot in his behavior, Daniel Fried said. , former Deputy Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs.
“The question is, how can we step back against Putin’s aggression, while keeping open channels of communication and continuing to cooperate with Russia in areas of mutual interest,” Fried said. “And I think the Biden administration has done a pretty good job of framing the relationship exactly that way.”
Eric Lorber, a former Treasury official who is now a member of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said the administration “is certainly trying to balance the pressure on Russia by backtracking on Russia, while not engaging in a complete economic development war “.
The White House did not impose sanctions related to separate reports that Russia encouraged the Taliban to attack U.S. and allied troops in Afghanistan, saying instead that Biden used diplomatic, military, and intelligence channels to respond. .
Reports of alleged “rewards” surfaced last year, with the Trump administration under fire for not raising the issue directly with Russia. Administration officials said Thursday that they had only low to moderate confidence in that intelligence, in part because of the ways the information was obtained, including interrogations of Afghan detainees.
Among the sanctioned companies are websites that according to US officials act as fronts for Russian intelligence agencies and spread misinformation, including articles denouncing widespread voter fraud in 2020. Among the target individuals are has Konstantin Kilimnik, Russian and Ukrainian political consultant. who worked with former Trump campaign president Paul Manafort, and who was accused of investigating Russia by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
The Treasury Department said Thursday that Kilimnik had provided “sensitive information about the survey and campaign strategy” to Russian intelligence services. This went beyond Mueller’s office, which said in its 2019 report that it had not been able to determine what Kilimnik had done with the survey data after obtaining it from the Trump campaign.
The list of sanctions also included the Kremlin’s first deputy chief of staff, Alexei Gromov, several individuals linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman with close ties to Russia’s president, nicknamed “Putin’s chef” for serving. of the Kremlin, and several front companies that the U.S. says. helped Prigozhin evade the sanctions previously imposed.
The US also sanctioned eight people and entities linked to Russia’s occupation of Crimea.
Biden informed Putin that sanctions would come earlier this week. Administration officials have made it clear in their contacts with the Russian side that they hope to avoid a “downward spiral” in the relationship, according to a senior administration official who informed reporters on condition of anonymity afterwards. of the announcement of sanctions.
The two leaders had a tense call in which Biden told Putin to “reduce tensions” after a Russian military build-up on Ukraine’s border and said the US “would act firmly in defense of its national interests.” with regard to Russian interference and electoral interference.
In a television interview last month, Biden said “yes” when asked if he believed Putin was a “killer.” He said the days of the United States are over to “roll” toward Putin. Putin later recalled his ambassador to the United States and noted the history of the United States of slavery and the killing of Native Americans and the atomic bombing of Japan during World War II.
U.S. officials are still facing the aftermath of the SolarWinds intrusion, which affected agencies such as the Treasury, Justice and Homeland Security departments. The breach exposed vulnerabilities in the supply chain, as well as weaknesses in the federal government’s own cyber defenses.
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Associated Press writers Zeke Miller in Washington, Vladimir Isachenkov and Daria Litvinova in Moscow and AP diplomatic writer Matthew Lee in Kabul collaborated.