Trump administration adds to growing list of Russia sanctions

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration added to its growing list of sanctions against Russia on Tuesday as U.S. lawmakers urged tighter economic restrictions on Moscow and Britain’s top diplomat accused Russia’s leader of pursuing policies that are making the world more dangerous.

The Treasury Department announced two new actions against Russian targets: blacklisting two companies and two individuals suspected of trying to circumvent U.S. sanctions imposed in June in response to cyberattacks; and targeting two Russian shipping companies suspected of transferring petroleum products to North Korean vessels in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

A senior Russian diplomat denounced the latest U.S. sanctions as baseless, saying they are based on “malicious insinuations.”

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Tuesday that the move reflects a “hardheaded, narrow-minded and aggressive approach by the U.S.” He added that Russia will respond without hurting its own interests and continue a “calm and methodical work on a constructive agenda.”

While President Donald Trump has sought closer ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, his administration has intensified economic pressure on Moscow over what it describes as “malign Russian activity” in Ukraine and Syria and Russia’s attempts to disrupt western democracies.

Two senior officials from the State and Treasury departments told a Senate hearing Tuesday that since January 2017, 217 Russian business people, officials, and private and state-run companies, including 14 banks and 20 energy firms, have been sanctioned. In addition, they said that the administration had expelled 60 Russian spies and closed Russia’s consulates in San Francisco and Seattle.

Impact being felt

Marshall Billingslea, the Treasury Department’s top terrorist financing official, acknowledged that the threat from Russia was “significant and continuing” but told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that without the sanctions, “their behavior would be even further off the charts.”

He and the State Department’s top diplomat for Europe, Wess Mitchell, said Russia is feeling the impact, costing its economy tens of billions of dollars, with companies under sanctions losing a quarter of their operating revenue and having to shed employees.

But the officials faced questions from skeptical lawmakers about the administration’s policy toward Russia, particularly since Trump has sent conflicting messages about it. The committee’s chairman, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., called Trump’s comments “undisciplined,” and Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire lamented that the president had issued “contradictory” statements about Russia. “Until we see a change in that behavior, we are going to continue to see and have concern.”

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said it appeared to him as though the administration was pursuing two different policies: one of the president’s and one of federal national security agencies.

Mitchell denied that.

“This is the president’s administration, this is his foreign policy.” Although Trump himself has repeatedly cast doubt on Russia’s culpability in 2016 election meddling, Mitchell and Billingslea both pointed to the Kremlin and Putin as the source.

Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, Sigal Mandelker, faced similar skepticism in a hearing before the Senate Banking Committee.

“It seems to many of us that our efforts are not effective enough. There’s so little we can show for our efforts,” Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., told her.

“I’m not convinced Treasury is doing everything possible to hold Putin accountable,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. “It’s not hard to see why Putin thinks he can interfere in our elections and get away with it.’

New hacking discovered

Russia denies accusations of election meddling, but suspicions of interference deepened Tuesday when Microsoft said it had uncovered new Russian hacking efforts targeting U.S. political groups before November’s midterm elections.

Microsoft said a group tied to the Russian government created fake websites that appeared to spoof two American conservative organizations: the Hudson Institute and the International Republican Institute. Three other fake sites were designed to look as if they belonged to the U.S. Senate.

The U.S. sanctions announced Tuesday targeted two companies and people suspected of trying to circumvent existing sanctions against Divetechnoservices of St. Petersburg. That company was sanctioned in June for procuring underwater equipment and diving systems for Russian government agencies, including the Federal Security Service, formerly Russia’s KGB spy service.

The two companies targeted in Tuesday’s action were Vela-Marine and Lacno S.R.O., which is based in Slovakia.