The Treasury Department of United States has announced the new sanctions against five entities and four individuals after President Barack Obama has signed the papers on Wednesday night.
In the executive order, the president said “additional steps to deal with the national emergency with respect to significant malicious cyber-enabled activities… in view of the increasing use of such activities to undermine democratic processes or institutions.”
The five institutions included in the list are: the Professional Association of Designers of Data Processing Systems, an autonomous non-commercial organization; Federal Security Service (Federalnaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti or FSB); Main Intelligence Directorate (Glavnoe Razedyvatelnoe Upravelenie or GRU); Special Technology Center; and Zorsecurity, formerly known as Esage Lab or Tsor Security.
The list of sanctioned people includes: GRU's first deputy chief, Vladimir Stepanovich Alexseyev; the deputy chief, Sergey Gizunov; Igor Korobov, chief of the GRU; and Igor Kostyukov, the first deputy chief of the GRU. The Treasury Department included two other names to the list "for malicious cyber-enabled activities," Aleksey Alekseyevich Belan and Evgeniy Mikhaylovich Bogachev.
In retaliation for reports of harassment of US diplomats in Moscow, White House has expelled 35 Russian intelligence officials, giving them 72 hours to leave the country. However, there is no correlation between both the cases.
“These actions follow repeated private and public warnings that we have issued to the Russian government, and are a necessary and appropriate response to efforts to harm U.S. interests in violation of established international norms of behavior,” Obama said in a statement.
In the executive order, the president said “additional steps to deal with the national emergency with respect to significant malicious cyber-enabled activities… in view of the increasing use of such activities to undermine democratic processes or institutions.”
The five institutions included in the list are: the Professional Association of Designers of Data Processing Systems, an autonomous non-commercial organization; Federal Security Service (Federalnaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti or FSB); Main Intelligence Directorate (Glavnoe Razedyvatelnoe Upravelenie or GRU); Special Technology Center; and Zorsecurity, formerly known as Esage Lab or Tsor Security.
The list of sanctioned people includes: GRU's first deputy chief, Vladimir Stepanovich Alexseyev; the deputy chief, Sergey Gizunov; Igor Korobov, chief of the GRU; and Igor Kostyukov, the first deputy chief of the GRU. The Treasury Department included two other names to the list "for malicious cyber-enabled activities," Aleksey Alekseyevich Belan and Evgeniy Mikhaylovich Bogachev.
In retaliation for reports of harassment of US diplomats in Moscow, White House has expelled 35 Russian intelligence officials, giving them 72 hours to leave the country. However, there is no correlation between both the cases.
“These actions follow repeated private and public warnings that we have issued to the Russian government, and are a necessary and appropriate response to efforts to harm U.S. interests in violation of established international norms of behavior,” Obama said in a statement.