Himes: Biden didn’t show Putin a ‘strong hand’
WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4, on Friday dismissed President Joe Biden’s announcement of sanctions against Russia as an “insufficient” response to the scope SolarWinds cyberattack and other Russian aggressions.
He urged the president to launch a cyber offensive against Russia to deter further interference and draw red lines about what will happen if Russia invades Ukraine or if Russia opposition leader Alexei Nalvany is killed.
“I am broadly concerned that Joe Biden has not indicated a strong hand to [Russian President] Vladimir Putin,” Himes, the number two Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in an interview Friday.
The rebuke positions Himes as one of the strongest critics of the Biden administration’s Russia and cyber policy, at least among Democrats. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Thursday Biden’s sanctions were a “forceful U.S. response,” although he added “sanctions alone will not be enough to deter Russia’s misbehavior” and suggested strengthening U.S. cyber-security defenses.
On Thursday, Biden publicly blamed Russia’s foreign intelligence service, the SVR, for the SolarWinds attack in December that allows hackers to access the systems of 18,000 government and private entities.
In response to the cyberattack and Russian interference in the 2020 election, Biden announced sanctions against 32 people and entities accused of trying to influence the election and eight other people and entities associated with the country’s actions in Crimea. He also expelled 10 diplomats and barred U.S. financial institutions from purchasing Russian debt.
“The United States is not looking to kick off a cycle of escalation and conflict with Russia. We want a stable, predictable relationship," Biden said. "If Russia continues to interfere with our democracy, I'm prepared to take further actions to respond.”
Himes argued that President Barack Obama tried sanctions against Russia in 2016 and that had little effect on continuing cyber hacks. He called Biden’s orders “deja vu” and said Biden might need to risk escalating conflict to have an effect.
“Extract some pain,” Himes urged Biden. “Penetrate and shut down a bunch of government networks, erase a bunch of data, create some chaos in some oligarchs’ Swiss bank accounts — there is a long list of things we could do that would serve the dual purpose of creating some pain and demonstrating our capabilities which are immense.”
Himes said he pressed the administration to take this step both publicly and behind closed doors in a Thursday House hearing with the director of the National Security Agency and other top intelligence officials.
The top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, also said
Biden’s actions were not enough.
“While these sanctions are a necessary step, I am concerned they will ultimately fail to establish a credible deterrent.” He urged action by the Biden administration against a Russian gas pipeline.
On Friday, Russia retaliated by sanctioning eight senior administration officials and expelling some diplomats.
Michael Schmidt, associate professor of National Security at the University of New Haven, said Russia will eventually find its way around the sanctions Biden has imposed, although Biden’s move on Russian debt-financing may have a longer term painful impact.
Schmidt also said Himes’ expectations of a what a targeted narrow cyberattack by the U.S. against Russia would accomplish were “unrealistic.”
“As far as SolarWinds goes, I think one of the major differences that people don’t think about is the Russian attacks are designed to attack the widespread economy,” Schmidt. “That’s different from what we do. If we attack Russia, and I am sure that we are engaging in offensive cyber operations as we speak, but when we do that, we are not trying to attack the Russian private sector in the way they are trying to attack us.”