TRUMP PRAISES ‘VERY SMART’ PUTIN
WASHINGTON— Presidentelect Donald Trump has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin for holding off on retaliation for new sanctions imposed by the Obama administration for its alleged interference in the US election.
“Great move on delay,” Trump said on Twitter. “I always knew he was very smart!”
Putin on Friday condemned a new round of US sanctions against Russia. But he said Moscow would not retaliate by expelling American diplomats.
Trump has been slow to criticize Putin and has questioned US intelligence linking Russia to campaign hacks.
While Trump promised to meet next week with US intelligence officials to discuss the issue, he said it’s time for the country to move forward.
The spokesperson for Russia’s foreign ministry, Maria Zakharova, said some of the diplomats ordered expelled by the United States had been in their posts for only about two months.
Zakharova said that their short tenure suggested they could not have been involved in cyberattacks on the US election process.
Russian attack
“It is unclear how they could technically be involved in the sabotage of the American elections, which the special services are talking about, starting spring 2016 as the date,” she said.
A report by The Washington Post on Thursday said a code associated with the Russian hacking operation dubbed Grizzly Steppe had been detected within the system of a Vermont electric utility.
The Russians did not actively use the code to disrupt operations of the facility, the official was quoted as saying, but penetration of the nation’s electrical grid is considered significant because it represents a potentially serious vulnerability.
Sanctions
The White House has ordered sanctions and declared 35 Russian diplomats persona non grata, ordered them to leave within 72 hours and their facilities closed.
It said the expulsions were in response to harassment of US diplomatic personnel in Russia over the last two years.
Putin branded the move a “provocation” aimed at further undermining bilateral relations. But he said Moscow would not expel American diplomats in response, as the Russian foreign ministry earlier suggested.
Death throes
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has called the US sanctions against his country “anti-Russian death throes.”
When he was president in 2008-2012, Medvedev focused on improving bilateral ties in what became known as the “reset” policy. He has voiced disappointment with the new round of sanctions.
“It is sad that the Obama ad- ministration that began its life by restoring ties ends it with anti-Russian death throes. RIP,” Medvedev said on Twitter.
Russia has threatened retaliation and continued to deny the accusation.
Trump, for his part, said the United States should move on, but in a sign he was no longer totally brushing off the allegations, said he planned to meet with intelligence leaders next week to learn more.
A month after an election, the United States says Russia tried to sway for Trump, and President Obama on Thursday sanctioned two leading Russian intelligence agencies he claimed were involved.
In an elaborately coordinated response by at least five federal agencies, the Obama administration also sought to expose Russia’s cybertactics with a detailed technical report and hinted it might still launch a covert counterattack.
Trump’s tweet enraged his Democratic foes as well as some members of his own Republican Party, with Evan McMullin accusing him of alternately “embracing Russian subversion and downplaying it.”
McMullin ran as an independent presidential candidate after his service as policy director for the House Republican Conference.
Trump has long treated such accusations as a thinly veiled effort by a Democratic president to delegitimize a Republican victory.