By Prarthana Mitra
The United States has issued sanctions on 19 Russian nationals on Thursday, thereby formally acknowledging Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential elections.
The Trump administration had been facing building pressure from the Congress to take punitive measures against Moscow’s cybercriminals. Thursday’s measures coupled with last month’s indictments of 13 Russian nationals account for the strongest action taken by the Trump administration against Moscow.
“The administration is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in US elections, destructive cyber-attacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure,” said US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a statement.
IRA penalized for cyber-rigging election
In addition to the 13 Russian nationals indicted by Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller last month, sanctions were slapped on Russian intelligence agencies, the Federal Security Service and the Main Intelligence Directorate as well as on some of their employees.
Amongst the intelligence agencies, the most important is the Yevgeny Prigozhin-backed Internet Research Agency (IRA) which created and managed innumerable fake online personas, who posed as Americans and posted thousands of ads as part of Moscow’s attempts “to sow discord ahead of the presidential contest”, the Treasury Department divulged on Thursday.
Penalties and reaction
The accused individuals and entities will face several penalties due to the imposition of the sanctions, including the freezing of all their American assets and well as the prohibition to conduct business with American citizens.
Prigozhin claims to be unaffected by the sanctions and has been reported as saying to the Russian media that he doesn’t have any business interests in the United States.
“I’m not worried by this,” he said to RIA news agency, “Except that now I will stop going to McDonald’s”
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has accused the United States of threatening global stability. He added that Russia had begun chalking up “retaliatory measures” against both the UK and the US using the “principle of parity”, starting with expelling British diplomats and expanding its own blacklist of Americans. The announcement of sanction by the US comes right after Britain’s sanctions against Moscow for the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter.
Read More: Allies rally behind UK over poisoning of Sergei Skripal
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