On Thursday US out-going president Barack Obama hit back at Russia for its alleged involvement in the hacking of the 2016 elections that were won by President-elect Donald Trump. In his retaliation, Mr. Obama has ejected 35 suspected Russian intelligence operatives from the USA and imposed sanctions on two of Russia’s foremost intelligence bodies.
Obama has also penalized the top personnel in one of the intelligence services, the unit called G.RU.
After investigations, US intelligence agencies have come to the conclusion that the GRU orchestrated attack on the DNC and other political groups with the go-ahead from the Kremlin, resulting in the publication of information such as emails it acquired to assist Trump’s victory.
The ejection of the 35 diplomatic personnel out of the USA has not been linked to the hacking but has been a retaliatory measure against the harassment of America diplomats in Russia, State Department official have said.
That is not all, though. The State department has also announced the closure of two waterfront estates: one in Glen Cove, N.Y., and another in Maryland Eastern Shore. These places are said to have been used by Russian intelligence agencies. It has however not been revealed whether these were used in the election hacks.
Altogether, these moves by the White House, the treasury, the State and Department as well as intelligence agencies, add up to the most serious response to the alleged Russian-sponsored cyber-attack. There also seems to be the intended purpose of boxing President-elect Donald J Trump. He will now be faced with the decision of lifting or upholding the sanctions on Russian intelligence next month.
President-elect Donald Trump made comments about the sanctions were he said, simply, “Move on.” He has however promised to meet with the intelligent officials who have concluded that Russian state sponsored hackers assisted him to win the election.
Just after the elections, Obama stated that he was aware that there were hacks during the elections, but chose to keep quiet.
According to Trump, the hacks are mere water under the bridge and should not be fought back at “Nothing to see here folks, move along,” he said.
Earlier on, while in Hawaii, Mr. Obama took a slight hit at Mr. Trump, who has doubted the finding of the intelligence agencies that Russia had a hand in the hacks. Obama said, “All Americans should be concerned by the actions of Russia during the elections. He added that America has only taken such action after repeated warnings to Russia.
President Obama thought it was better not impose any sanctions earlier on to avoid any possible retaliation from Russia that might have disrupted the election. Some of his advisors think this was a mistake, but the president said he had it in mind to take action as he left for Hawaii.
