Trump administration sanctions Russian spies, trolls over US election interference, cyber attacks

The Trump administration on Thursday imposed fresh financial sanctions on Russian government hackers and spy agencies to punish Moscow for interfering in the 2016 presidential election, and for a cyberattack against Ukraine and other countries last year that officials have characterized as “the most destructive and costly” in history.

Sanctions also were imposed on individuals known as “trolls” and the Russian organizations that supported their efforts to undermine the election. Additionally, the administration alerted the public that Russia is targeting the U.S. energy grid with computer malware that could sabotage the systems.

Taken together, the moves represent the administration’s most significant actions to date against Russia for its aggression against the United States. They are intended to deter tampering with this year’s midterm elections while signaling to Russia that Washington will not allow its attacks to go unchallenged, officials said.

[U.S., France and Germany join Britain in saying Russia likely responsible for chemical attack against former spy]

“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,” said Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin. “These targeted sanctions are a part of a broader effort to address the ongoing nefarious attacks emanating from Russia.”

The sanctions stand in contrast to President Trump’s reluctance to blame the Kremlin for its interference in the 2016 presidential race despite the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Moscow did so.

They come on the heels of the United States, France and Germany joining Britain in denouncing Russia for a brazen poison attack that has left a former Russian spy and his daughter comatose in a Salisbury, England, hospital. On Wednesday Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats in retaliation.

They come, too, as the outgoing head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command has warned that if the United States does not take punitive or deterrent action against Russia, its malicious activity will continue.

[Cyber chief warns Russia will continue its aggressive behavior if the U.S. does not change “the dynamic”]

Mnuchin said that his department intends to impose additional sanctions to hold Russian officials and oligarchs “accountable for their destabilizing activities by severing their access to the U.S. financial system.”

Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, told Interfax on Thursday that Moscow was prepared for the new round of sanctions but dismissed them nonetheless, saying they are part of a U.S. effort to destabilize Russia’s presidential elections on March 18. Moscow will craft a response, he said.

In all, the new sanctions target 19 people and five organizations. Many were indicted last month by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and whether the Trump campaign coordinated with the Kremlin to sway the race’s outcome. Those 13 individuals and three entities are accused of spreading propaganda using social media and other means, with the goal of sowing discord.

A separate set of sanctions were imposed on two Russian spy agencies. Officials said the FSB, a successor to the KGB, used its cyber tools to target U.S. government officials, including cyber security, diplomatic, military and White House personnel. The other is the GRU, a military spy organization, which officials said was “directly involved in interfering in the 2016 U.S. election” through cyber activities.

The GRU also was behind a June 2017 cyber attack, delivered through a mock ransomware virus dubbed NotPetya, which wiped data from the computers of banks, energy firms, senior government officials and an airport. On Thursday, the government sanctioned the GRU and six of its senior officials in response to that attack.

NotPetya hit systems in Ukraine the hardest, but U.S. companies, including shipping giant FedEx and the pharmaceutical firm Merck, also were affected, losing hundreds of millions of dollars in earnings. To date, the attack has cost companies around the world $1.2 billion in revenue, according to the cybersecurity firm Cybereason. One U.S. national security official put the toll of the attack at $10 billion.

In February, the White House and the British government publicly blamed the attack on Russia. And the CIA privately concluded with “high confidence” in November that the Russian GRU military spy agency was behind the virus. Unleashing NotPetya was seen as an effort to disrupt that country’s financial system amid its ongoing war with separatists loyal to the Kremlin.

The cyber assaults reflect Russia’s mounting aggression in cyberspace as part of a larger “hybrid warfare” doctrine that marries traditional military means with cyber-tools to achieve its goal of regional dominance.

In a separate move, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are releasing malware “indicators” related to the Russian government cyber campaign against the energy sector and other critical industries, including water, aviation, critical manufacturing and energy. The indicators go back to at least March 2016. They are related to a campaign by a group dubbed Dragonfly by the cybersecurity firm Symantec.

Matthew Bodner contributed to this report from Moscow.

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