Russian Sanctions Announced

[Homerboy]

Oh boy, here we go...

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/29/politics/russia-sanctions-announced-by-white-house/index.html

(CNN)President Barack Obama took unprecedented steps Thursday in issuing an executive order against six Russian individuals and five Russian entities in relation to what the Treasury Department said was to address "Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities."

This is the first time the names of Russian officials involved in the hacking have become public on the sanctions list.

Obama also said in a separate statement that 35 Russian diplomats have been ordered to leave the country, and 2 Russian compounds are being closed under Thursday's actions.

A White House statement described the consensus from the Intelligence Community that Russia's meddling in US elections via cyberhacking as "unacceptable and will not be tolerated."

"Russia's cyberactivities were intended to influence the election, erode faith in US democratic institutions, sow doubt about the integrity of our electoral process, and undermine confidence in the institutions of the US government," the statement said. "These actions are unacceptable and will not be tolerated."

According to statements from the White House and the Treasury Department, the government has sanctioned nine entities and individuals: the GRU and the FSB, two Russian intelligence services; four individual officers of the GRU; three companies that provided material support to the GRU's operations; and two Russian individuals for using cyber-enabled means to cause misappropriation of funds and personal identifying information.

Obama also said in the statement announcing that the diplomats have been ordered to leave the country, that those individuals and their families were given 72 hours to leave the United States.
"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 U.S. interests in violation of established international norms of behavior," Obama said in the statement.

 

[desura]

Looks like more targeted sanctions against individuals. Whatever. Politicians in general always have to look tough.

Iran faced some awful sanctions. Like, I've heard them complain that they have a hard time getting basic medicines thanks to those sanctions.

I'm kind of sick of our current generation of political leadership. McCain is so old he just does the same thing over and over again. There ought to be a mandatory retirement age for politicians like what exists in China.

 

[Balt]

Probably more meaningful to American politics than any actual impact on Russia.

Trump won't just be able to remove the sanctions without any attention at all. He'll have to take a deliberate and noticeable action to remove them. Whether people will actually care is a different question.

 

[Homerboy]

Probably more meaningful to American politics than any actual impact on Russia.

Trump won't just be able to remove the sanctions without any attention at all. He'll have to take a deliberate and noticeable action to remove them. Whether people will actually care is a different question.

I'm guessing I know which people will care and which ones will dismiss it...

 

[Balt]

I'm guessing I know which people will care and which ones will dismiss it...

Yep. Regardless of what he does and how much or how little attention the media gives to it, it probably won't matter to Trump's supporters who believe the 'librul media' is just conspiring against him.

 

[momeNt]

Wouldn't the Russians like a public acknowledgment that they successfully interfered with the election?

So we just gave them exactly what they were looking for.

Don't feed the troll!

 

[vi edit]

This just paints Trump in a box and he'll be forced to either double down (quadruple?) on his current Russia rhetoric and go against pretty much everyone - current admin and most of the GOP or accept it an face whatever back channel wrath comes that way.

 

[MomentsofSanity]

Trump is openly stating the U.S. should just "just get on with our lives" instead of putting new sanctions in place. That the U.S. should ignore being hacked by an outside nation. Will be interesting to see what happens when he gets into office. Both sides of the aisle are in almost complete agreement that something like this should occur.

 

[JSt0rm]

trump is a wild card. He could pull all sanctions and go so what.

 

[HomerJS]

Wouldn't the Russians like a public acknowledgment that they successfully interfered with the election?

So we just gave them exactly what they were looking for.

Don't feed the troll!

Are you suggesting we do nothing? The only way pressure can be applied so sanctions can't be easily removed is to go public

 

[momeNt]

Are you suggesting we do nothing? The only way pressure can be applied so sanctions can't be easily removed is to go public

I'm not sure what the answer is. War is the most likely outcome of all of this, so with that in mind, why put in people's minds that our democracy is eroding? Why not just skip straight to the conclusion?

 

[desura]

Are you suggesting we do nothing? The only way pressure can be applied so sanctions can't be easily removed is to go public

Yes, we should do nothing. This isn't really proportional. Proportional would have been hacking them back. Preferably with a phishing email that has a big USA flag on it.

 

[Commodus]

I'm not sure what the answer is. War is the most likely outcome of all of this, so with that in mind, why put in people's minds that our democracy is eroding? Why not just skip straight to the conclusion?

Bush expelled more Russians in 2001 and didn't start a war. This is just showing Russia that there are consequences for interfering with an election. It's not necessarily a perfect response, but doing nothing would just send a signal to the Russians that they can get away with state-sponsored hacking campaigns.

Yes, I'm sure the Obama administration takes delight in knowing that this also puts Trump in a tight spot, but look at it this way: it's a litmus test for Trump's loyalty to his country. If he bends over backwards to lift the sanctions as soon as he's in office, it'll be obvious who he's working for.

 

[Mai72]

Does this mean war?

I'm going to watch the day after! The 1984 TV movie of nuclear war between US and Russia!

 

[Mai72]

trump is a wild card. He could pull all sanctions and go so what.

Obama knows this. He puts Trump and the Republican party in a very difficult situation when he becomes POTUS.

Does he lift sanctions? If so, it could make Trump and the Republican party look very weak. There is already in house fighting between key Republicans. Exactly what Big O wanted.

 

[desura]

Did anyone read what the sanctions actually were? They basically kicked some diplomatic persons out of the country and sanctioned a handful of companies.

Trump can leave those in place and it isn't a big deal. Russia will just send new diplomatic persons.

People think sanctions = blanket prohibitions on trade. This is not that sort of sanction. It is the targeted banning of individuals and companies. It really doesn't affect the average Russian at all.

 

[vi edit]

Does this mean war?

I'm going to watch the day after! The 1984 TV movie of nuclear war between US and Russia!

This feels like the political equivalent of de-friending someone on Facebook.

 

[interchange]

Too little too late, and it doesn't sound like Trump is eager to continue the fight. Really wish we would have bluntly outed the aggressive actions of Russia from the start and taken some immediate action. Now we're burnt out taking our anger out on ourselves.

 

[cytg111]

This feels like the political equivalent of de-friending someone on Facebook.

You want cold war? Ill give you cold war.
It is god damned sad, that is what it is.
Had to be done. Sad non the less.

 

[agent00f]

This just paints Trump in a box and he'll be forced to either double down (quadruple?) on his current Russia rhetoric and go against pretty much everyone - current admin and most of the GOP or accept it an face whatever back channel wrath comes that way.

You seem optimistic about the conservative backbone.

 

[FIVR]

Those sanctions are going bye-bye as soon as Trump's rule begins. I don't think people understand how unmoored this man is, he is beholden to literally no-one in the US. The only persons he owes anything are the foreign banks owners who loaned him money and Putin himself.


It's nice to see Obama taking action on something, but sadly this won't last. It will be an entertaining show to watch the GOP try to dance around the fact that Trump is a Russian stooge.

 

[JD50]

This is who you idiots voted for

“I think we ought to get on with our lives,” Trump said. “I think that computers have complicated lives very greatly. The whole age of the computer has made it where nobody knows exactly what’s going on. We have speed, we have a lot of other things, but I'm not sure we have the kind of security we need.”

 

[FrankRamiro]

Let terminate this crappy conversation ,Obama is weak,always was,he had 8 years to act and did nothing now is an American traitor in relation to Israel,sold out to Communist China, paid millions to terrorist Iran which used the money to spread terrorism all over the world,now Obama/Hilary lost the election,now is trying to be vindictive to the next administration on his way out,because he knows well that his legacy is going down the tube,nothing he did during these 8 years will be part of the feature history,hes gonna be the worse president of all times.

 

[Balt]

Let terminate this crappy conversation ,Obama is weak,always was,he had 8 years to act and did nothing now is an American traitor in relation to Israel,sold out to Communist China, paid millions to terrorist Iran which used the money to spread terrorism all over the world,now Obama/Hilary lost the election,now is trying to be vindictive to the next administration on his way out,because he knows well that his legacy is going down the tube,nothing he did during these 8 years will be part of the feature history,hes gonna be the worse president of all times.

So.. where ya from?

 

[IronWing]

So.. where ya from?

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