Obama stance questioned
Trump camp says sanctions on Russia for alleged e-mail hacking ‘disproportionate’
ATOP aide to presidentelect Donald Trump said the White House may have disproportionately punished Russia by ordering the expulsion of 35 suspected Russian spies.
Incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer said on ABC’s This Week that Trump would be asking questions of US intelligence agencies after President Barack Obama imposed sanctions last week on two Russian intelligence agencies over what he said was their involvement in hacking political groups in the 2016 US presidential election.
Obama also ordered Russia to vacate two US facilities as part of the tough sanctions on Russia.
A Russian Il-96 plane carrying the diplomats and their families landed at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport yesterday after having taken off from Washington on Sunday.
State television showed the diplomats and their families gathering their luggage on the tarmac in the rain before heading inside the terminal.
US intelligence says the Kremlin ordered a hack-and-release of Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton campaign staff e-mails in a bid to put Donald Trump in the White House.
Moscow has repeatedly dismissed the allegations.
The expulsion of the diplomats – described as intelligence operatives based at the Russian embassy in Washington and the consulate in San Francisco – were part of a package of sanctions ordered by President Barack Obama on Thursday in the final weeks of his administration.
Obama also ordered the closure of two Russian compounds in New York and Maryland that the United States says were used “for intelligence-related purposes”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last week rebuked the outgoing president for “unfriendly steps” amounting to “a provocation aimed at further undermining Russian-American relations” but refrained from ordering the tit-for-tat expulsion of American diplomats from Russia.
He said that Moscow’s next move would be “based on the policies pursued by the administration of President Donald Trump”.
Putin’s decision has been interpreted as a sign he is looking to Trump to rebuild US-Russian ties after the US presidential inauguration later this month.
“One of the questions that we have is why the magnitude of this? I mean, you look at 35 people being expelled, two sites being closed down, the question is, is that response in proportion to the actions taken? Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t, but you have to think about that,” Spicer said.
Trump is to have briefings with intelligence agencies this week after he returns to New York.
On Saturday, Trump expressed continued scepticism over whether Russia was responsible for computer hacks of Democratic Party officials.
“I think it’s unfair if we don’t know,” Trump said.
“It could be somebody else. I also know things that other people don’t know so we cannot be sure.”
He said he would disclose some information on the issue today or tomorrow, without elaborating.
It is unclear if, upon taking office on January 20, he would seek to roll back Obama’s actions, which mark a post-Cold War low in US-Russian ties.
Spicer said that after China in 2015 seized records of US government employees, “no action publicly was taken”.
“Nothing, nothing was taken when millions of people had their private information, including information on security clearances, shared. Not one thing happened.
“So there is a question about whether there’s a political retribution here versus a diplomatic response,” he said.
Republican John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, scheduled a hearing for Thursday on foreign cyber threats and has said that Russia must be made to pay the price for attacks “on our very fundamentals of democracy”.
The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said on the same ABC programme that Congress would push for an even harsher reprisal against Russia and warned Trump against undoing Obama’s sanctions.
“We think that more has to be done. We don’t think that, frankly, the steps that have been taken are enough of a deterrent,” Representative Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, said.
“And you’re going to see bipartisan support in Congress for stronger sanctions against Russia.”
Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, said that Obama’s sanctions were not enough.
Putin decided not to expel anyone in retaliation, saying he would consider the actions of Trump when deciding on further steps.
Trump, who has repeatedly praised Putin, said the Russian leader was “very smart” for holding back. — Reuters-AFP