US expels 35 Russian officials, slaps sanctions over hacking

In apparent retaliatory action against alleged Russian hacking during the US presidential election, President Barack Obama has slapped a series of sanctions against Russia and expelled 35 Russian officials.
"All Americans should be alarmed by Russia's actions," Obama said in a statement yesterday as he ordered a number of actions in response to the Russian government's alleged aggressive harassment of US officials and cyber operations targeting the US election.
"These actions follow repeated private and public warnings that we have issued to the Russian government, and are a necessary and appropriate response to efforts to harm US interests in violation of established international norms of behaviour," he said.

The US has also ordered shutting of two of Russian compounds in the country.
The executive order issued by Obama provided additional authority for responding to certain cyber activity that seeks to interfere with or undermine US election processes and institutions, or those of its allies or partners.
"Using this new authority, I have sanctioned nine entities and individuals: the GRU and the FSB, two Russian intelligence services; four individual officers of the GRU; and three companies that provided material support to the GRU's cyber operations," he said.

"In addition, the Secretary of the Treasury is designating two Russian individuals for using cyber-enabled means to cause misappropriation of funds and personal identifying information. The State Department is also shutting down two Russian compounds, in Maryland and New York, used by Russian personnel for intelligence-related purposes, and is declaring 'persona non grata' 35 Russian intelligence operatives," Obama said.

"Finally, the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are releasing declassified technical information on Russian civilian and military intelligence service cyber activity, to help network defenders in the US and abroad identify, detect, and disrupt Russia's global campaign of malicious cyber activities," he said.
Obama said these actions are not the sum total of US response to Russia's aggressive activities.
"We will continue to take a variety of actions at a time and place of our choosing, some of which will not be publicised," he said.
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Later a senior administration official said these actions have been taken in response to a "very disturbing Russian threats" to US national security.

"We are responding here to a pattern of Russian behavior that has been evident over some time," the official added.
"This should come as no surprise to the Russian government, given that we have warned publicly and privately, including directly from President Obama to President Putin, that there would be a response for these Russian actions," he said adding that these serve two purposes.
"One there has to be a cost and a consequence for what Russia has done. It is an extraordinary step for them to interfere in the democratic process here in the United States of America, and there needs to be a price for that," he said.

"They need to be held accountable for that. And we believe that this should be of concern to all Americans, as the president said in his statement and to members of Congress from both parties, because this was an attack on our democratic system, and we're responding in kind," he added.
"Secondly, we also believe that these steps are important because Russia is not going to stop. We have every indication that they will continue to interfere in democratic elections in other countries, including some of our European allies.
"There's no reason to believe that they will not try to interfere in future American elections, be they state and local elections, midterm elections, or future presidential elections," he said.

"And so we also need to publicise what we know about who is responsible, demonstrate that there's a cost, try to reveal what we know about how Russia operates in this space," he noted.