The US has expelled 35 Russian diplomats as punishment for alleged interference into last month’s presidential elections, giving them 72 hours to leave the country.
It will also close two compounds used for Russian intelligence-gathering.
President Barack Obama had vowed action against Russia amid US accusations it directed hacks against the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Well at least no harm was done, because Clinton’s opponent is a responsible, thoughtful, reasonable, compassionate guy who will do a good job.
Or, rather, he’s the opposite of all that, as well as a liar and a thief and a pussygrabber, so I don’t admire the Russians’ prank.
The move follows calls from senior US senators to sanction Russian officials who are believed to have played a role in the hacking, which some lawmakers referred to as America’s “political Pearl Harbor”.
Republican senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, who led the calls for sanctions, said they “intend to lead the effort in the new Congress to impose stronger sanctions on Russia”.
A Kremlin spokesman told journalists in Moscow that President Vladimir Putin would consider retaliatory measures.
Dmitry Peskov said the actions were “a manifestation of unpredictable and aggressive foreign policy”, and called them “ungrounded and not legal”.
And the Russian embassy in the UK tweeted a visual gag calling the Obama presidency a lame duck.
Cold War nothing. Putin is no communist, so this is not a continuation of the Cold War.
In a joint statement by the Department of Homeland Security, the Office of the Director of National Security, and the FBI, US officials appeal to companies to “look back within their network traffic” and report any signs of “malicious cyber activity” to law enforcement.
The Russian hacking, which the US intelligence agencies describe as a “decade-long campaign” included methods such as “spearphishing, campaigns targeting government organisations, critical infrastructure, think-tanks, universities, political organisations, and corporations; theft of information from these organisations; and the recent public release of some of this stolen information”.
Emails stolen from Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager and from the servers of the Democratic National Committee were released during the 2016 presidential election by Wikileaks.
Yet many people are still insisting Julian Assange is a lefty hero.
“[A] manifestation of unpredictable and aggressive foreign policy?” “[U]ngrounded and not legal?”
He ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Things will get really unpredictable, aggressive, ungrounded and not legal after Jan. 20. If the Russians piss off the Pinching Blowfish they may yet experience some blowback from their meddling.
The Russians may yet regret what they did as the instability and uncertainty that Trump is likely to bring to international relations could work against them as much as for them, like bioengineering gone wrong where the introduced species goes beyond its original remit and becomes an even greater pest than the one it was introduced to “control”. Of course it will be much too late. Regrets won’t fix a broken planet.
This sort of escalation is worrying to me. There’s still no evidence that’s been presented that Russia had anything to do with the Hillary Clinton campaign’s leaked emails, and I don’t know what the Obama administration is attempting to accomplish with these sanctions.
Potentially true, but Trump is pretty damn cosy with Russia, as are many of his officials. I suspect America and Russia will get along grandly once the buffoon ascends and entertains the belief that the puppetmaster is a genuine friend. Trump may even spin it as he were a peacemaker(!) assuaging escalating tensions between the powers by backing down and reneging on the NATO agreement. And Russia loots eastern Europe.
@PD: Do you suppose all those billions of dollars the US govt spends on its covert intelligence apparatus is for the purpose of providing publicly accessible evidence that will be admissible in some court of law somewhere? Intelligence is gathered in order to aid political decision-making. That may be an ideal honoured as often in the breach as in the observance, but when there is such unanimity across so many organisations, I would tend to assume it is the latter in this case.
There’s still no evidence that’s been presented that Russia had anything to do with the Hillary Clinton campaign’s leaked emails
Classified evidence hasn’t been presented to us, the public. That’s how that works. It has been given to Obama, who acted on it.
Of course, Obama and the spooks could be lying to us. Not sure why they would (especially given that they’re not big fans of Clinton.) Given the evidence we do have, Occam’s razor suggests to me that in this case, they’re probably telling the truth.
Also, the intelligence services of Estonia, Poland, Germany, and France (at least) have noticed similar Russian-sourced activity in their own election infrastructure; I’m sure they are just trying to escalate tensions with the reasonable statesman that is Putin.
‘Cold War nothing. Putin is no communist, so this is not a continuation of the Cold War.’
To what extent was the Cold War more about Russian Imperialism than any notion of socialist revolution? THe Czars did everything they could to ‘manage’ governments outside their direct command, and Lenin and Co. inherited the infrastructure to continue…
Certainly to some extent. You’d need an expert to put a precise number on it! But yeah – Russia was generally viewed with suspicion / fear because of its size and potential power as well as imperialism and Other Stuff. I’ve been wanting to learn more about that. 1917 obscured that fact for generations, I think.
I’m not a techie either, but I notice the article you linked to says this about the government’s allegation that Russia was behind the DNC hack: “security experts say that the document provides little in the way of forensic “proof” to confirm the government’s attribution” This is why I don’t believe Russia was behind the leak based on assertions with little evidence.
Many people are still insisting Hillary Clinton is more evil than her opponent – and these are people on the left.
“[A] manifestation of unpredictable and aggressive foreign policy?” “[U]ngrounded and not legal?”
He ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Things will get really unpredictable, aggressive, ungrounded and not legal after Jan. 20. If the Russians piss off the Pinching Blowfish they may yet experience some blowback from their meddling.
The Russians may yet regret what they did as the instability and uncertainty that Trump is likely to bring to international relations could work against them as much as for them, like bioengineering gone wrong where the introduced species goes beyond its original remit and becomes an even greater pest than the one it was introduced to “control”. Of course it will be much too late. Regrets won’t fix a broken planet.
This sort of escalation is worrying to me. There’s still no evidence that’s been presented that Russia had anything to do with the Hillary Clinton campaign’s leaked emails, and I don’t know what the Obama administration is attempting to accomplish with these sanctions.
#2
Potentially true, but Trump is pretty damn cosy with Russia, as are many of his officials. I suspect America and Russia will get along grandly once the buffoon ascends and entertains the belief that the puppetmaster is a genuine friend. Trump may even spin it as he were a peacemaker(!) assuaging escalating tensions between the powers by backing down and reneging on the NATO agreement. And Russia loots eastern Europe.
@PD: Do you suppose all those billions of dollars the US govt spends on its covert intelligence apparatus is for the purpose of providing publicly accessible evidence that will be admissible in some court of law somewhere? Intelligence is gathered in order to aid political decision-making. That may be an ideal honoured as often in the breach as in the observance, but when there is such unanimity across so many organisations, I would tend to assume it is the latter in this case.
Yeah, evidence schmevidence. What were you thinking, PD? That the secret police would ever lie to us?!
@PD #3
Classified evidence hasn’t been presented to us, the public. That’s how that works. It has been given to Obama, who acted on it.
Of course, Obama and the spooks could be lying to us. Not sure why they would (especially given that they’re not big fans of Clinton.) Given the evidence we do have, Occam’s razor suggests to me that in this case, they’re probably telling the truth.
Also, the intelligence services of Estonia, Poland, Germany, and France (at least) have noticed similar Russian-sourced activity in their own election infrastructure; I’m sure they are just trying to escalate tensions with the reasonable statesman that is Putin.
A report was released today. This includes a subset of the evidence. Techies will be able to evaluate it; I can’t.
http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/312132-fbi-dhs-release-report-on-russia-hacking
‘Cold War nothing. Putin is no communist, so this is not a continuation of the Cold War.’
To what extent was the Cold War more about Russian Imperialism than any notion of socialist revolution? THe Czars did everything they could to ‘manage’ governments outside their direct command, and Lenin and Co. inherited the infrastructure to continue…
Certainly to some extent. You’d need an expert to put a precise number on it! But yeah – Russia was generally viewed with suspicion / fear because of its size and potential power as well as imperialism and Other Stuff. I’ve been wanting to learn more about that. 1917 obscured that fact for generations, I think.
@Lady Mondegreen
I’m not a techie either, but I notice the article you linked to says this about the government’s allegation that Russia was behind the DNC hack: “security experts say that the document provides little in the way of forensic “proof” to confirm the government’s attribution” This is why I don’t believe Russia was behind the leak based on assertions with little evidence.