New sanctions of the White house aimed at deterring cyberattacks from Russia in the future and include measures that were not announced. Comments about this “Segodnya” said former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer.
Also the former diplomat said that even if the newly elected President Donald trump and his administration wants to lift the sanctions against Russia, they will not be able to do in full.
“They (sanctions – Ed.) are the actions of the Executive branch, the administration, trump would not be able to cancel them all. Published information on the cyber operations of the Russian intelligence services and steps to protect against this can’t be undone. And Mr. trump would look silly if he told Moscow about going back 35 scouts who were declared persona non grata, he will face a barrage of criticism,” – said the diplomat.
However, according to Pifer, there was little surprise that Russian President Vladimir Putin decided not to retaliate. “The usual Russian practice is to send an equal number of American diplomats. I think that’s part of Putin’s efforts to cultivate trump. During the campaign (polls – Ed.) Trump has suggested that he may lift sanctions against Russia, perepisat the illegal annexation of Crimea and to change the terms of U.S. engagement with NATO. All this calls for the Kremlin and Putin. In my understanding, they (Russia – Ed.) want to give Trump as much space as possible in the hope that it will make some of these measures (sanctions, Crimea or NATO – Ed.) policy of the United States” – summed up the ex-US Ambassador in Ukraine.
Recall, December 29, the United States expanded sanctions against Russia in response to hacker attacks, conducted in mid-June: according to the White house, the Russian hackers broke into a database of the U.S. Democratic party, including having access to information about the newly elected President Donald trump. The United States declared persona non grata 35 diplomats from Washington and San Francisco, they have already left the country. Closed and two of Russia’s diplomatic mission in Maryland and new York, which, in the opinion of the American authorities, were used for intelligence purposes. Also published by the U.S. Treasury sanctions are six people and five departments, including FSB. In the sanctions list – the chief of the GRU Igor Korobov, its the first Zama Vladimir Alekseev and Sergey Lizunov, one of the first Deputy head of the GRU Igor Kostyukov, hackers Alexey Bilan and Evgeny Bogachev, who has long been declared in the international search. The FBI suspects them of extortion, computer hacking, identity theft and other types of fraud.
Russia has decided not to take retaliatory sanctions against the us. Although the head of Russian foreign Ministry Sergei Lavrov suggested 35 to expel American diplomats from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and Consulate in St. Petersburg. “Reserving the right to retaliate, we will not stoop to the level of “cooking” irresponsible diplomacy and further steps for the restoration of Russian-American relations will develop based on the policy to be conducted by the administration of President trump,” reads the statement of Vladimir Putin, published on the Kremlin website.
