U.S. imposes new sanctions on Russian entities over 2016 election meddling

[DonViejo]

Source: Politico





Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says America will level additional sanctions 'to hold Russian government officials and oligarchs accountable.'

By ANDREW RESTUCCIA and CORY BENNETT 03/15/2018 10:30 AM EDT Updated 03/15/2018 10:46 AM EDT

The Treasury Department on Thursday slapped new sanctions on two dozen Russian entities and individuals for interfering in the 2016 election and conducting a series of damaging cyberattacks.

“The administration is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in U.S. elections, destructive cyberattacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. “These targeted sanctions are a part of a broader effort to address the ongoing nefarious attacks emanating from Russia.”

Mnuchin added that Treasury is planning to impose additional sanctions “to hold Russian government officials and oligarchs accountable for their destabilizing activities by severing their access to the U.S. financial system.”

The announcement comes amid a growing firestorm over a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in southern England. The British government, the U.S. and others have blamed Moscow for the attack and moved this week to dispel 23 Russian diplomats. Though Thursday’s sanctions are unrelated to that attack, an administration official told reporters on a conference call that the incident “further demonstrates the reckless and irresponsible conduct” of Russia’s government.

No link yet.

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Trump unveils new sanctions on Russia over cyber meddling

BY JONATHAN EASLEY - 03/15/18 10:35 AM EDT

The U.S. is imposing new sanctions on Russian individuals and entities in response to cyberattacks in the U.S. and Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Senior national security officials said Thursday the U.S. will sanction five entities and 19 individuals from Russia for a range of cyber attacks, including the disruptive 2016 Petya attack, as well as Russia’s “destabilizing efforts” in the 2016 presidential election.

Treasury will freeze those assets and prohibit Americans from doing business with those Russians, officials said.

Some of those entities sanctioned by Treasury have already been indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller.

more
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/378564-trump-slaps-new-sanctions-on-russia-over-cyber-meddling

[Mrs. Overall]

1. Aren't there 10,000 tweets in which the dipshit says that Russian meddling is a hoax?

[poboy2]

16. 400lb guy on his basement bed. -nt

[Shrike47]

2. How about imposing the sanctions Congress passed?

[AJT]

6. Exactly

[janx]

11. He finally did,

I suspect under a lot of pressure. It's in the article.

[Igel]

15. You didn't recognize them when you saw them?

They're saying these are CAATSA sanctions. At least in part.

The legislation called CAATSA didn't say, "Do this, this, and this!." It said, "This is what you can do if and when you find cause." The admin didn't do it on the first day that the law said they could; they did it a couple of months later, so I guess any cause-and-effect connection was backgrounded. Many understood the law from the way it was presented in just their version of the media to be a mandatory imposition of sanctions. The text of the law doesn't even allow that as an inference, so either the media misrepresented the law or the media were misread. The fakeness of fake news is sometimes provider-side, but sometimes it's consumer-side.

Could the administration do more? Most assuredly. Could they rescind even these sanctions? Sure.

Will the sanctions have the desired effect?

Not in the least. Action taken mostly out of anger, a desire to do something, and possibly to get revenge very seldom proves all that useful; moreover, the timing couldn't be much better. "Look, Russians, we're hated and need to stick together" is a reasonable sort of agitprop piece. The Kremlin's concern isn't Putin's winning, but turnout. They have a big legitimizing GOTV campaign going on now. It's hard to claim a mandate with a 0.5% majority, it's hard to claim a mandate with 25% of the electorate. Not that politicians don't (just look at the Catalan independence referendum, for instance).

The CAATSA was apparently mostly feel-good legislation, but obviously didn't even accomplish that.

[rzemanfl]

3. Drumpf couldn't write a sanction on the chef for only giving him one scoop. n/t

[Afromania]

4. LMFAO

yea, ok.

[NewJeffCT]

5. These are sanctions from the US Treasury

on the 19 Russians indicted by Mueller. These are NOT the sanctions passed by Congress.

[dalton99a]

9. +1

[janx]

12. Excerpt:

The sanctions were applied through executive power as well as through the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, which Congress initially passed this summer hoping to pressure Trump into punishing Russia for its election interference.
Trump signed the bill reluctantly in August, claiming it impinged upon his executive powers and could dampen his attempts to improve ties with Moscow.

[lindysalsagal]

7. He's turning on putin. Finally.

He might be realizing that he's in real trouble. But it's too little too late.

[janx]

14. I wouldn't go as far as to say that.

But after what just happened in Salisbury he had no choice but to finally implement the sanctions.

[Chakaconcarne]

8. why do I not trust this?

should I believe it because they say it's so?

can they impose but not enforce? I have no idea.

[LenaBaby61]

10. These are nothing muffin ...

Sanctions. But of course fatso-in-chief couldn't implement the ones with teeth that would cripple the ruskie state because his puppet master putin would not be too happy with that.

[question everything]

13. Are these the same sanctions that Congress approved and Trump ignored? (nt)