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Crime United States Government Security

US Treasury Sanctions 16 Russians For Hacking, Election Meddling (engadget.com) 129

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Engadget: The Treasury Department has leveled sanctions against 16 current and former GRU intelligence officers (some of whom were targeted in earlier indictments) for their involvement in multiple campaigns against the U.S., including the Democratic National Committee hacks, World Anti-Doping Agency hacks and election meddling efforts. The targets include Elena Khusyaynova, the primary accountant for the Project Lakhta influence campaign that included the Internet Research Agency. The sanctions also target associated entities like the Federal News Agency.

As with the indictments, the sanctions will only have a limited effect. The measure blocks all property and interests from these people that might be in U.S. jurisdictions, and Americans are "generally prohibited" from conducting transactions with them. The targets live in Russia, though, and it's doubtful that they'll travel to countries where the sanctions will hit them. This is more a symbolic gesture than one intended to curb Russian hacks and manipulation attempts.

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US Treasury Sanctions 16 Russians For Hacking, Election Meddling

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  • by jabuzz ( 182671 ) on Thursday December 20, 2018 @08:09AM (#57835416) Homepage

    Thing is that the sanctions mean that most Western banks are prohibited from providing them with services because they are also present in the USA. That's a lot more problematic.

    Further plenty of countries will be happy to arrest them pending extradition to the USA, including pretty much the entire EU amount others. They will also be unable to get diplomatic passports for pretty much anywhere now, and if Russia issues false identities to get them diplomatic passports they are invalid and that diplomatic immunity is out the window.

    For reference just ask Meng Wanzhou how that is working out for her...

    Basically if they ever want to step outside Russia they need to be very very careful where they go.

    • Thing is that the sanctions mean that most Western banks are prohibited from providing them with services because they are also present in the USA. That's a lot more problematic.

      It simply means that free, independent nations will increasingly make their own arrangements, cutting out the US-controlled banks and institutions entirely. This is already well under way in Russia, China and Iran - and a lot of other countries can see which way the wind is blowing.

      If someone potentially hostile is holding your testicles, it is wise to take steps to change the situation. Perhaps by getting someone else to deal the aggressor a smart blow to the head, or - all else failing - by grabbing his n

  • by h33t l4x0r ( 4107715 ) on Thursday December 20, 2018 @08:14AM (#57835428)
    Be careful what you wish for.
    • by Anonymous Coward

      Flynn: no lawyers in his multiple FBI interviews
      Hillary!: nine lawyers in her one FBI interview, no notes by FBI allowed

      Flynn: failed to register as a foreign agent while he was a private citizen
      Hillary!: made millions via Clinton Foundation from Russia while she was Secretary of State approving Uranium One deal. [nytimes.com]

      Flynn: going to jail
      Hillary!: Free despite setting up a private email server, almost certainly hacked by multiple foreign intelligence services, and putting classified data on it. Free despite h [nypost.com]

      • by Anonymous Coward

        Flynn: no lawyers in his multiple FBI interviews
        Hillary!: nine lawyers in her one FBI interview, no notes by FBI allowed

        Flynn: failed to register as a foreign agent while he was a private citizen
        Hillary!: made millions via Clinton Foundation from Russia while she was Secretary of State approving Uranium One deal. [nytimes.com]

        Flynn: going to jail
        Hillary!: Free despite setting up a private email server, almost certainly hacked by multiple foreign intelligence services, and putting classified data on it. Free despite having her uncleared maid handle top secret information [nypost.com]. Free despite directing subordinate to remove classification markings and send classified data via her insecure email [thehill.com].

        ALL those stories were created by the Russians to discredit Clinton to get Trump elected. I cannot believe you're so gullible - but there are millions of people like you in this country and coupled with Republican election rigging, we now have a baboon in the White House who ruined Obama's great economy, got played by the North Koreans like the idiot he is, saddled future generations with debt and environmental ruin, committed treason, made the CFPB worthless, we never got that trillion dollars in infrast

        • ...we now have a baboon in the White House...

          Well, his enemies called Lincoln a gorilla and the missing link. So far as I know, that puts Lincoln and Trump in a class apart, as the only US presidents every compared to apes or monkeys.

          • by Anonymous Coward

            With the important distinction that one of them was called a gorilla because of his looks, and the other because of his intelligence. There is no need to specify which is which.

      • Yes, it's "a nation ruled by laws, not men".

        No one ever mentioned women.

  • The bigger picture (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 20, 2018 @08:18AM (#57835440)

    Spies in 2012-2014 caught trying to recruit US:
    "Evgeny Buryakov, 39, who posed as an employee in the New York City office of a Russian bank [VTB bank], according to the federal complaint. The man he met regularly for the handoffs was Igor Sporyshev, 40, "

    https://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/27/us/new-york-alleged-russian-spy/index.html

    They went around New York developers offering lucrative Moscow property deals in exchange for getting sanctions lifted against Russia.

    VTB bank, the bank involved, were sanctioned, the spies were prosecuted and their diplomat handlers kicked out.

    This is why Trump was negotiating Trump Tower Moscow all through the election, which would have seen him basically receive $130 million in name licensing fees, and it's why VTB bank was to finance the project.

    This is why he lied about the deal, despite knowing he'd already signed onto the deal, and continued to lie until Cohen's trial.
    This is why his lawyer, Giuliani, lied about him signing the deal, only admitting Trump had signed it when confronted with the contract.
    This is Moscow hid the deal, and went along with Trump's lie, helping him conceal it. They knew he was lying, they had a copy of the letter of intent he so carefully hid from the FBI... yet they cooperated in the lie.

    You see why Trump just handed control of Syria over to Moscow? There's trust there, Trump knew Putin would conceal the lies he was telling to the FBI.

    • Spies in 2012-2014 caught trying to recruit US... They went around New York developers offering lucrative Moscow property deals in exchange for getting sanctions lifted against Russia.

      That's damned odd, since the sanctions were only imposed in 2014 and later. Did those guys have precognition, or what?

      Moreover, the Russian government has never had the slightest motive to try to get sanctions lifted. They have done Europe a lot of economic harm - tens or hundreds of billions worth - and Russia a great deal of good. (Had you noticed that Russia, not the USA, is now the world's leading exporter of wheat? And safe, healthy wheat - not the GM muck the USA produces).

      https://russia-insider.com/s [russia-insider.com]

  • Scooby gang: "Mr. Russky???"

    Mr. Russky: "Yes, it was me! And it would have worked too, if it weren't for you meddling social media censor kids!!!"

    Square jawed policeman: "Good work kids! And where he's going, I don't think his meddling tricks will ever work!"

    The targets live in Russia, though, and it's doubtful that they'll travel to countries where the sanctions will hit them. This is more a symbolic gesture than one intended to curb Russian hacks and manipulation attempts.

    Square jawed policeman: "Oh .,.. well, never mind then ... maybe they will ... "

  • This is the begining.

    After 16 people were able to reverse the "natural" outcome of the elections of the "greatest democracy in the world", Major powers will change democracy in a way that you can only vote parties previously approved by real powers. No people will be able to create new parties or run for president except for designed ones... just like happens in IRAN, Middle East "democracies", and other repressive countries.

    The brainwashing against democracy has begun, once people has realized the false s

    • That's how it is in Communist China. They have elections - you just have to be a member of the Party, and there is only one candidate on the ballot who's approved by the CPC and thus who will win.
  • The Gov should create an AI that trolls those people online mercilessly.

  • Any non-American posting anything on social media visible in the U.S. for/against any candidate in the 2020 Presidential election can now be told, "please delete your post or you could be accused of election meddling, and face sanctions prohibiting Americans from conducting any transactions with you in the future."

    I agree with the principle that people who can't vote in an election shouldn't be allowed to influence it. But I simply don't think that's a goal that's realistically achievable without compl
    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Any non-American posting anything on social media visible in the U.S. for/against any candidate in the 2020 Presidential election can now be told, "please delete your post or you could be accused of election meddling, and face sanctions prohibiting Americans from conducting any transactions with you in the future."

      I agree with the principle that people who can't vote in an election shouldn't be allowed to influence it. But I simply don't think that's a goal that's realistically achievable without completly breaking other freedoms of social interaction.

      Barring foreigners from commenting on elections in a country is of course silly and pointless [1], but barring organized false-flag comment campaigns seems very reasonable to me. We call this shilling, and it is frowned upon in all social media.

      [1] I must assume the same principles apply if the country is the USA or any other country.

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