30 December 2016, Friday, 11:41 85

USA Imposes Sanctions On Individuals, Entities Over Cyber-Attacks During Election

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The United States of America has imposed sanctions on Russian Federation individuals and legal entities over the cyber-attacks during the election process.

Ukrainian News Agency learned this from a statement made by President of the United States Barack Obama.

"I have ordered a number of actions in response to the Russian government's aggressive harassment of U.S. officials and cyber operations aimed at the U.S. election," Obama said in a statement accompanying the sanctions announcement. "These actions follow repeated private and public warnings that we have issued to the Russian government, and are a necessary and appropriate response to efforts to harm U.S. interests in violation of established international norms of behavior," it reads.

"All Americans should be alarmed by Russia's actions. In October, my Administration publicized our assessment that Russia took actions intended to interfere with the U.S. election process. These data theft and disclosure activities could only have been directed by the highest levels of the Russian government. Moreover, our diplomats have experienced an unacceptable level of harassment in Moscow by Russian security services and police over the last year. Such activities have consequences. Today, I have ordered a number of actions in response," said the U.S. President.

"I have issued an executive order that provides additional authority for responding to certain cyber activity that seeks to interfere with or undermine our election processes and institutions, or those of our allies or partners," Obama stated.

He sanctioned nine entities and individuals: the GRU and the FSB, two Russian intelligence services; four individual officers of the GRU; and three companies that provided material support to the GRU's cyber operations. In addition, the Secretary of the Treasury is designating two Russian individuals for using cyber-enabled means to cause misappropriation of funds and personal identifying information.

The State Department is also shutting down two Russian compounds, in Maryland and New York, used by Russian personnel for intelligence-related purposes, and is declaring "persona non grata" 35 Russian intelligence operatives. Finally, the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are releasing declassified technical information on Russian civilian and military intelligence service cyber activity, to help network defenders in the United States and abroad identify, detect, and disrupt Russia's global campaign of malicious cyber activities.

Those individuals and their families were given 72 hours to leave the United States.

USA will continue to take a variety of actions at a time and place of its choosing, some of which will not be publicized.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, USA has imposed sanctions on seven RF nationals and 34 RF companies over the conflict in Ukraine.