U.S. close to levying sanctions on Russia

The Obama administration is close to announcing a series of measures to punish Russia for its interference in the 2016 presidential election, including economic sanctions and diplomatic censure, according to U.S. officials.

The administration is still finalizing the details, which are also expected to include covert action that likely will involve cyberoperations, the officials said.

A n a n n o u n c e me n t o n the public elements of the response could come as early as this week.

The sanctions part of the package culminates weeks of debate in the White House about how to revise an executive order from last year meant to give the president authority to respond to cyberattacks from overseas, but which did not originally cover efforts to influence the electoral system.

The Obama administration last year rolled the order out to great fanfare as a way to punish and deter foreign hackers who harm the United States’ economic or national security.

The threat to use it last year helped wring a pledge out of China’s president that his country would cease hacking U.S. companies’ secrets to benefit Chinese firms.

But officials this fall concluded that it could not, as written, be used to punish the most significant cyber-provocation in recent memory against the United States: Russia’s hacking of Democratic Party organizations, targeting of state election systems and meddling in the presidential election.

Administration officials would also like to make it difficult for President-elect Donald Trump to roll back any action they take.