U.S. imposes stricter sanction on Russia for 2020 election interference and other Hacking Operations
Russia’s leading intelligence agency was formally blamed for sophistication hacking that breaches American government and the nation’s largest companies. It was followed by imposing some strict sanctions on the country.
President Biden in an executive order announced a series of additional steps which are to sanction entities and individuals carrying out the Russian government’s involvement in the 2020 presidential elections. Also expelled 10 individuals from the Russian embassy in Washington on the grounds of being identified as intelligence operatives. U.S. also joined hands with the European partners to sanction eight entities and people associated with Russia’s occupation in Crimea.
It is first time that the United States has directly accused the Kremlin of the “SolarWind” hacking attack, which went deep into the government’s data, saying it was masterminded by SVR, one of the Russian intelligence agency which was involved in hacking the Democratic National Committee six years ago.
As per a senior official of The White House, U.S. wanted to give a befitting response to Russia for its actions but also didn’t wanted to jeopardize their relationship. The United States doesn’t wish to have “escalatory relationship” with Russia.
As per officials, the steps in response to the “SolarWind” hacking went “unseen” by Russia. Also to the CIA assessment, Russia interfered in the 2016 election favouring Donald Trump, and also offered bounties to kill the American soldiers in Afghanistan.
Jake Sullivan, National Security advisor, told the reporters that the President had informed Russian President, Vladimir Putin, on Tuesday that U.S. will be imposing more sanctions. Biden also added that he wanted a “predictable and stable” future for their relationship and suggested a summit meeting between two leaders.
Russia denied all the charges saying that the accusations were baseless. Biden termed Putin as “killer” and said that Russia will “pay the price” for their actions. Before his inauguration, Biden had suggested that U.S. will reply in kind to the hacking, which seemed to propose some kind of cyber-attack.
In January, The White House Press Secretary, Jen Psaki, had said that Biden has requested for full assessment on the hack and 2020 election interference. Biden administration had unveiled its first round of sanctions after the news of poisoning and detention of Navalny, the opposition leader.
In a wide speculation the sanctions coming on Thursday are due to Russian amassing the forces at the Ukraine’s border. Kremlin said that it was for training purpose but the E.U and the U.S have called them to withdraw.
Analyst says that military actions were not possible but many have to believe that Russia will pressurize the U.S. to not get involved in the country which they treat as their backyard.