Obama sanctions Russia for interfering in 2016 elections
35 diplomats given 72 hours to leave the country • Moscow: Decision represents ‘death throes of political corpses’
HONOLULU (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Thursday authorized a series of sanctions against Russia for intervening in the 2016 US presidential election and warned of more action to come.
“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 US interests in violation of established international norms of behavior,” Obama said in a statement.
“These actions are not the sum total of our response to Russia’s aggressive activities. We will continue to take a variety of actions at a time and place of our choosing, some of which will not be publicized,” he said.
Obama said a report by his administration about Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 election would be delivered to Congress in the coming days.
The United States expelled 35 Russian diplomats and closed two Russian compounds in New York and Maryland in response to a campaign of harassment against American diplomats in Moscow, a senior US official said on Thursday.
A Russian parliamentary official said Washington’s decision on Thursday to expel 35 Russian diplomats represented “the death throes of political corpses.” Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of the international affairs committee in the upper house of the Russian parliament, was quoted by the RIA news agency.
Trump, who takes office on January 20, has called for better relations with Russia. It was not clear if he will be able to immediately overturn the measures announced on Thursday.
The Russian diplomats would have 72 hours to leave the United States, the official said. Access to the two compounds, which are used by Russian officials for intelligence gathering, will be denied to all Russian officials as of noon on Friday, the senior US official added.
“These actions were taken to respond to Russian harassment of American diplomats and actions by the diplomats that we have assessed to be not consistent with diplomatic practice,” the official said.
The State Department has long complained that Russian security agents and traffic police have harassed US diplomats in Moscow, and US Secretary of State John Kerry has raised the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.
“By imposing costs on the Russian diplomats in the United States, by denying them access to the two facilities, we hope the Russian government reevaluates its own actions, which have impeded the ability and safety of our own embassy personnel in Russia,” the official said.
The US official declined to name the Russian diplomats who would be affected, although it is understood that Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Sergei Kislyak, will not be one of those expelled.
US House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Thursday Russia “has consistently sought to undermine” US interests and that sanctions imposed by the Obama administration on Russia were overdue.
“While today’s action by the administration is overdue, it is an appropriate way to end eight years of failed policy with Russia,” Ryan said in a statement. “And it serves as a prime example of this administration’s ineffective foreign policy that has left America weaker in the eyes of the world.”