U.S. sanctions Russians for election meddling

Administration implements actions for ‘nefarious acts’

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Thursday announced sanctions against 19 Russian individuals and five organizations for meddling in the 2016 election and for other “destructive cyberattacks” still targeting the U.S. electrical grid and water systems.

While the sanctions were the strongest against Russia to date by this administration, President Donald Trump declined to personally criticize Moscow directly for its attacks against the country, or even mention the sanctions, when he briefly met with reporters after the Treasury Department’s announcement.

He simply acknowledged, only when asked by reporters, that he agreed with British Prime Minister Theresa May that Russia was culpable for a separate nerve-agent attack March 4 in Salisbury, England, that targeted a Russian-born double agent and his adult daughter and injured other British citizens.

“It certainly looks like the Russians were behind it — something that should never, ever happen,” Trump said, adding, “We’re taking it very seriously.”

The poisoning in Salisbury was “a very sad situation,” the president added, as he met Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.

The president’s comment was far less condemnatory on the poisonings 11 days ago than a separate statement that his administration issued on Thursday with Britain, France and Germany. That joint statement called Russia’s use of the military-grade nerve agent a “clear violation” of international law and said that Moscow’s failure to respond to Britain’s charge “further underlines Russia’s responsibility.”

Trump has not criticized Russia for its election meddling, which included spreading fake news stories and hacking the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chief, according to the U.S. intelligence community. He has, however, repeatedly criticized the federal probe of that interference and possible Trump campaign involvement as a “witch hunt.”

Yet the new Treasury sanctions echo indictments in that probe. They include measures against 13 individuals and three entities, including the Internet Research Agency, that have been charged as part of the ongoing Russia investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.

The sanctions also target six other individuals and two entities that are described as “cyber actors” operating on behalf of the Russian government.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the new sanctions are part of a broad effort to address “ongoing nefarious attacks” by President Vladimir Putin’s government.

“The Administration is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in U.S. elections, destructive cyberattacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure,” Mnuchin said in a statement.

A national security official told reporters, on condition of anonymity to describe intelligence matters, that Russian military hackers were behind both the destructive “NotPetya” malware attack last year that did billions of dollars in damage across Europe and the United States — disrupting shipping, banking and medicine production — and attempts to infiltrate U.S. electrical grids, nuclear facilities, aviation, and water services that are “long-term and still ongoing.”

The United States and Britain last month jointly blamed Russia for the NotPetya attack, which Treasury on Thursday called “the most destructive and costly cyber-attack in history.”

One of the most prominent individuals sanctioned was Yevgeniy Prigozhin, a close associate of Putin known as “Putin’s chef ” because of his lucrative government catering contracts, and the sanctioned entities included the Internet Research Agency that Prigozhin founded, based in St. Petersburg, Russia.

According to Mueller’s indictment, the I.R.A. created fake social media accounts to sow discord during the 2016 presidential campaign, orchestrated pro-Trump rallies from afar, and hired actors to dress as Clinton in cages at demonstrations, among other provocations.

Many of the new sanctions were issued to comply with a bipartisan law passed by Congress last summer that required the Trump administration to add sanctions to those imposed by the Obama administration in late 2016. Trump signed the law reluctantly, with a statement that he believed the legislation was “seriously flawed,” and his administration is months late in meeting the law’s deadline for action.