The U.S. Retaliation Against Russian Hackers

President Obama announced sanctions Thursday on Russian intelligence officials and organizations he said were involved in efforts to undermine the U.S. elections. In a statement, he said 35 Russian intelligence officials in the U.S. were being expelled and two Russian compounds, one in Maryland and the other in New York, were being closed. The measures are the first public steps the Obama administration has taken against what the U.S. intelligence community believes is Russia’s hacking of the Democratic National Committee and other organizations in the run-up to the election in November.  

“These actions are not the sum total of our response to Russia’s aggressive activities,” Obama said. “We will continue to take a variety of actions at a time and place of our choosing, some of which will not be publicized.”

In an executive order, Obama imposed sanctions on Igor Orobov, the head of GRU, the Russian military intelligence agency; and three of his deputies: Vladimir Alexseyev, Sergey Gizunov, and Igor Kostyukov. Sanctions were also imposed against Aleksey Belan and Evgeniy Bogachev, two hackers who already were on the FBI’s list of ten most-wanted cyber criminals. The entities sanctioned include the GRU, the FSB, which is Russia’s internal security service, and three entities that are believed to be fronts for Russian intelligence: the Moscow-based Autonomous Noncommercial Organization Professional Association of Designers of Data Processing Systems (ANO PO KSI) and Zorsecurity, and St. Petersburg-based Special Technology Center.

The sanctions on the intelligence agencies and officials are largely symbolic—and it’s not immediately clear if these steps will have any real impact. Relations between Washington and Moscow have been frosty despite attempts to reset them. Their one common diplomatic achievement was the Iranian nuclear deal, but Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014 and the Syrian civil war, in which Russia is supporting President Bashar al-Assad, have complicated ties. Indeed, in response to the expulsion of the 35 diplomats, the Russian Embassy in London tweeted:

President Obama expels 35