After ignoring a January 29th deadline to impose sanctions on Russia for election interference, claiming just the threat of sanctions was deterrent enough, at least one Trump administration department is taking action.
On Thursday, the Treasury Department announced sanctions on 19 Russian individuals and five entities for election meddling and ongoing cyberattacks. Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the man known as Putin's chef who is accused of financing the Internet Research Agency (IRA) election interference operation, is included. So is the IRA. (Full List)
Treasury also announced it was sanctioning the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) – two of Russia's top three spy agencies – for their roles in undermining cybersecurity on behalf of the Russian government, but the two agencies already were under sanctions.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo (who has just been tapped to replace Secretary of State Rex Tillerson) and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats met with the head of the FSB in Washington in January. The head of the GRU was in town too, but media outlets did not know if he met with U.S. officials.
Under CAATSA [the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act], the administration announced Thursday it is sanctioning Russia's spy organization and military intelligence organization -- both of which were already sanctioned by the Obama administration for their role in the 2016 election. The sanctions also target six Russians who worked for the military intelligence organization, four of whom were also already sanctioned.
From Treasury's official announcement:
“The Administration is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in U.S. elections, destructive cyber-attacks, 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. Treasury intends to impose additional CAATSA sanctions, informed by our intelligence community, to hold Russian government officials and oligarchs accountable for their destabilizing activities by severing their access to the U.S. financial system.”
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Since at least March 2016, Russian government cyber actors have also targeted U.S. government entities and multiple U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, including the energy, nuclear, commercial facilities, water, aviation, and critical manufacturing sectors. Indicators of compromise, and technical details on the tactics, techniques, and procedures, are provided in the recent technical alert issued by the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation.
In addition to countering Russia’s malign cyber activity, Treasury continues to pressure Russia for its ongoing efforts to destabilize Ukraine, occupy Crimea, meddle in elections, as well as for its endemic corruption and human rights abuses. The recent use of a military-grade nerve agent in an attempt to murder two UK citizens further demonstrates the reckless and irresponsible conduct of its government. To date, this Administration has sanctioned more than 100 individuals and entities under our Ukraine and Russia-related sanctions authorities, including 21 individuals, nine entities, and 12 subsidiaries that are owned 50 percent or more by previously sanctioned Russian companies on January 26, 2018. These sanctions are in addition to other ongoing efforts by Treasury to address destabilizing activity emanating from within Russia, including our sanctioning of Russians targeted for activities related to the North Korea sanctions program, the Global Magnitsky program, and the Sergei Magnitsky Act.
As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the designated persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.
The sanctioned individuals and entities draw primarily from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's indictment against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies announced on February 16th. However, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has been promising sanctions are coming soon since the missed deadline in January. The whereabouts of Mnuchin's original list – the one he had claimed to be finalizing for six weeks – are unknown.
The sanctions also relate to the Russia government's attempts to access the energy grid. A senior national security official said the FBI, DHS and intelligence community have determined "Russian government cyber actors are behind the targeting of the organizations in the energy sector."
"Cyber actors are using a multi-staged attack campaign with staging and intended targets involved, and the campaign is long-term and still ongoing," another national security official said. They added cyber actors "conducted network reconnaissance, moved laterally and collected information pertaining to industrial control systems, the systems that run our factories and our grid."
The same official said DHS and FBI have removed the Russian infiltration in systems/organizations currently known to be targeted.
US officials said that malware had been found in the operating systems of several organisations and companies in the US energy, nuclear, water and “critical manufacturing” sector, and the malware as well as other form of cyber-attacks had been traced back to Moscow.
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The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued an alert, urging other firms in the industry to review their cybersecurity. The alert said the concerted cyber attack on US infrastructure began in March 2016.
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Officials added that the motive of the attack was initially surveillance, to gather information on computer management systems in the US energy grid.
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“After obtaining access, the Russian government cyber actors conducted network reconnaissance, moved laterally, and collected information pertaining to industrial control systems,” it added.
Trump administration sanctions Russians for 2016 election interference, other cyber attacks (ABC News)
Sanctions list (Treasury)
US accuses Russia of cyber-attack on energy sector and imposes new sanctions (The Guardian)