Ex-sanctions czar bashes Obama administration's 'weak' response to Russian interference
Source: Yahoo News
Michael Isikoff Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo NewsApril 20, 2018
The former State Department diplomat who oversaw U.S. government sanctions policy said he was extremely frustrated when the Obama administration issued weak and frankly inadequate sanctions against Russia in December 2016 in response to that countrys campaign to disrupt the U.S. presidential election.
Daniel Fried, who retired in 2017 after a 40-year State Department career that included serving as U.S. sanctions coordinator under President Obama, offered his sharp critique of the Obama administrations response to Russian actions during an interview on the Yahoo News podcast Skullduggery.
The Obama administration in my view, and I was in it, OK? I was working on sanctions then did not respond with adequate strength to the Russian interference in our elections, Fried said. What we did in December 2016 was a very light set of sanctions, which I think was frankly inadequate.
We went after some cybertargets, we expelled some diplomats, we sanctioned some of the intel services. But those sanctions are not apt to be terribly effective, and we knew it. This was not enough.
Fried was referring to a series of sanctions Obama announced in late December 2016. Declaring that all Americans should be alarmed by Russias actions during the election, Obama said at the time that the actions were a necessary and appropriate response to efforts to harm U.S. interests in violation of established international norms of behavior.
Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/ex-sanctions-czar-bashes-obama-administrations-weak-response-russian-interference-122944195.html
sandensea
(21,655 posts)Besides, the real problem is our woefully unsecured voting systems.
forgotmylogin
(7,530 posts)Trump refuses to implement sanctions with any substantial weight.
The right would have screamed if Obama put any foot down in any way that would have been seen as interfering with Russia's election interference.
Trump blames everything including his win on others.
Trump says he's here and he alone can fix it.
A fixer does not push responsibility on others.
onetexan
(13,056 posts)i do hold O partly responsible, but here the idiot is doing nothing simply because he's complicit. He's in it w/ the russians.
Grins
(7,227 posts)That, hours after those light sanctions were announced, a certain later-to-plead-guilty and soon beg for immunity Trump adviser, was on the horn to his Russian masters saying, "Don't worry about it."
aggiesal
(8,923 posts)Obama in December of 2016 was now considered a lame-duck president.
No President in his lame-duck period is going to pull some operation in this
grand scale a month before Idiot45 takes over the reins.
Fullduplexxx
(7,868 posts)pandr32
(11,605 posts)So sick of it!
Turbineguy
(37,364 posts)Anything that Obama did to preserve democracy was railed against by the republicans, wing-nuts and Fox.
stillcool
(32,626 posts)it's what April 20th, 2018? ..poor guy. This has been eating at him since December 2016! Now it's a year and a half later and he's finally voicing his concerns. Not about the sanctions, or Russia...just Obama and his last month in office. I hope he feels better.
marble falls
(57,162 posts)not even mentioning cheetolini's weak and non-existent sanctions and an invitation to the White House to Putin for dinner and a sleepover.
Goody.
curiouso
(57 posts)So what did he recommend at the time - and to whom did he make his recommendation?