President Joe Biden (L) and President Vladimir Putin.
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The Biden government on Thursday imposed a series of new sanctions on Moscow over alleged interference in the 2020 election, a colossal cyberattack on U.S. government and corporate networks, illegal annexation and occupation of Crimea and human rights violations.
“Today, the US Treasury Department (OFAC) has taken comprehensive action against 16 entities and 16 individuals who sought to influence the 2020 US presidential election under the leadership of the Russian government,” he said. treasury said. in a statement.
In addition to the broad sanctions issued by the Treasury, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced that it will expel ten officials of the Russian diplomatic mission in the United States.
The sanctions come after President Joe Biden’s call this week with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, and as Russian power meets near the border with Ukraine.
Washington formally accuses the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) of being behind the late-year SolarWinds cyberattack, described by cyber security experts as one of the largest and most sophisticated hacking operations in history.
“The American intelligence community has a high level of confidence in its assessment of attribution,” the Treasury said. With the hack, hackers were able to gain access to the software used by thousands of government agencies and companies.
The fines are also in response to a report by the U.S. director of national intelligence in March in which Russian President Vladimir Putin approved attempts to interfere in the 2020 election in favor of former President Donald Trump.
Biden also signed an executive order on Thursday allowing Washington to sanction any sector of Moscow’s economy, significantly increasing the scope of the sanctions authorities.
Under this new authorization, US financial institutions were banned from conducting transactions in the primary market for new ruble or non-ruble bonds issued after 14 June.
“The President has signed this comprehensive new authority to confront Russia’s continuing and growing malicious behavior,” Finance Minister Janet Yellen said in a statement praising the measure.
“The Treasury is using this new authority to impose charges on the Russian government for its unacceptable actions, including by limiting Russia’s ability to finance its activities and by directing Russia’s malicious and disruptive cyber-capability,” she added.
Deteriorating relations between America and Russia
Taking a tougher stance on Russia was one of Biden’s promises for foreign policy. The measures announced Thursday join a series of earlier moves: the Obama administration’s debt financing restrictions for large Russian companies like Rosneft, and the Trump administration’s ban on U.S. entities from buying Russia’s foreign currency loans.
“Today’s US sanctions have continued the general trend of deteriorating relations since the annexation of Crimea,” Maximilian Hess, head of political risk at London law firm Hawthorn Advisors, told CNBC.
“The key part” of these sanctions, he said, “is the exclusion of US entities from the primary ruble debt market by the Russian government.”
However, Hess noted that it “will have no major impact, especially given Russia’s manageable debt burden.”
For Timothy Ash, senior strategist at Emerging Markets at Bluebay Asset Management, the measures are far from being harsh.
‘It’s like guys. Come on, you have to do better than that, ‘Ash wrote in a note following the announcement.
“Sovereign primary still allows American entities to hold this debt. US institutions can therefore not buy Russian sovereign debt in primary issue, but can get their Russian bank friends to buy it in the primary context for them, to pay them a fee. give and then it in the secondary. “
The ruble compared some of its day’s losses against the dollar shortly after the sanctions news, trading at $ 76.3025 local time at $ 76.3025 at 4pm just before the sanctions details were announced.
Russian troops on the Ukrainian border
The Biden-Putin call on Tuesday, at least the second between the two men since Biden took office in January, comes as the United States and other Western countries grow tired of Russia’s growing military build-up along the border with Ukraine, where their tens of thousands of troops and tanks.
“We are now seeing the largest concentration of Russian troops on Ukraine’s borders since 2014,” Foreign Minister Antony Blinken said on Tuesday after visiting NATO headquarters in Brussels. “This is a major concern not only for Ukraine but also for the United States.”
Regional experts say this move could be an attempt to test Biden’s steel and intimidate Ukraine; the more pessimistic outlook suggests that its aim is to lead Ukraine into renewed conflict.
During the phone call with Putin, Biden “emphasized the unwavering commitment of the United States to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”, according to a White House reading.
Biden suggested holding a summit somewhere outside the US and Russia ‘to discuss the full range of issues facing the countries.
The Kremlin later said in a statement on Tuesday that Biden had “proposed to consider holding a personal summit in the foreseeable future”.