Washington announces financial sanctions against Russia, expels ten diplomats

In response to cyber attacks and interference in the 2020 presidential election attributed to Moscow, the United States government of Joe Biden announced on Thursday April 15 a series of financial sanctions against Russia and the expulsion of ten diplomats Russian.

Russia promised a response on Thursday “Inevitable” to the new sanctions decreed by the United States against him, and summoned the American ambassador to Moscow for a “Difficult conversation”. “The United States is not ready to accept the objective reality of a multipolar world without American hegemony (…) Such aggressive behavior will receive a strong retaliation. The response to the sanctions will be inevitable ”, said Russian diplomacy spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

Attempts to “influence the 2020 presidential election in the United States”

The President of the United States has signed a decree that will allow Russia to be punished again, so as to engender “Strategic and economic consequences, (…) if it continues or promotes an escalation of its actions of international destabilization ”, warned the White House in a statement. As part of this executive order, the US Treasury prohibited US financial institutions from directly purchasing debt issued by Russia after June 14. It also sanctions six Russian tech companies accused of supporting Moscow’s cyber intelligence activities.

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This is a response to the gigantic cyberattack of 2020 which used as a vector SolarWinds, an American software publisher whose product was pirated to introduce a vulnerability among its users, including several American federal agencies. The Biden administration formally accuses Russia of being responsible for this attack, as it had already suggested. The Treasury also sanctions thirty-two entities and persons accused of having attempted, on behalf of the Russian government, to“Influence the 2020 presidential election in the United States”, according to the White House.

In partnership with the European Union, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, the United States government also imposes sanctions on eight individuals and entities. “Associated with the persistent occupation and repression in Crimea”. As for the accusations of bounties offered by Russia to the Taliban to attack American or foreign soldiers in Afghanistan, the White House remains, for the moment, vague, affirming that this matter is “Managed through diplomatic, military and intelligence channels”.

The World with AFP