TheCable

The US government on Thursday imposed new sanctions on Russia over “harmful foreign activities” against the country’s sovereignty and interest.

According to the White House, the sanctions are retaliatory moves against what the administration described as interference of the Russian government in the 2020 presidential election and cyber-attacks on federal agencies.

Sanctions were imposed on 32 entities and individuals linked to the Russian government over the attempt to influence the 2020 presidential elections.

The expulsion of 10 personnel from the Russian diplomatic mission in the US was also announced.

“President Biden signed a new sanctions executive order that provides strengthened authorities to demonstrate the administration’s resolve in responding to and deterring the full scope of Russia’s harmful foreign activities,” the White House said in a statement.

“This includes, in particular, efforts to undermine the conduct of free and fair democratic elections and democratic institutions in the United States and its allies and partners; engage in and facilitate malicious cyber activities against the United States and its allies and partner.

“Foster and use transnational corruption to influence foreign governments; pursue extraterritorial activities targeting dissidents or journalists; undermine security in countries and regions important to United States national security; and violate well established principles of international law, including respect for the territorial integrity of states.”

In 2020, several federal agencies were attacked with a software that contained malicious codes in an attempt to gather top government secrets, which was tagged, “SolarWinds”.

US cybersecurity experts alleged that the Russian government was responsible for the attack.

This is the second sanction within two months as the US government earlier sanctioned seven mid-level and senior Russian officials over the attack on Alexei Navalny, an opposition leader in Russia.