President Joe Biden on Thursday sent a clear signal to Russian leader Vladimir Putin that the days of tolerating Russian aggression are over by imposing new sanctions on Russia and expelled diplomatic personnel in response to election interference and cyber hacks by the country.
In a news release, the White House said that “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 Russian diplomats who are being expelled are based in Washington, DC, and New York, and they will have 30 days to leave the country, according to CNN. New financial restrictions will be put in place, which could hurt Russia’s economy, National security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN’s John Berman on “New Day.”
As a part of the announcement, the US formally named the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service as the force behind the SolarWinds hack that affected the federal government and wide swaths of the private sector.
The Biden administration vowed to respond to Russia’s aggression against the US and its allies in the early days of Biden’s presidency. Biden confronted Putin over a range of issues, from a recent massive cyberattack to the suspected poisoning of the country’s leading opposition figure, during their first phone call. And the Biden administration has already rolled out sanctions for the jailing and poisoning of opposition leader Alexey Navalny.
The sanctions come as the Biden administration has also sought to keep open channels of diplomatic communication and to work with Russia when it is in the US’ interest.
