The stick, then the olive branch. This is what Joe Biden simultaneously employed for the attention of his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Poutin, on Thursday, April 15. In the morning, the White House indeed made public a series of sanctions against Moscow in retaliation against several actions deemed unfriendly, including a massive hacking targeting federal services, attributed by US intelligence to Russia, which denies any responsibility.
The President of the United States then spoke in the afternoon to say that he hoped that a ” de-escalation “, after what he presented as a call to order. He reiterated his wish for a bilateral meeting this summer in Europe with Vladimir Putin to discuss issues on which the two countries may have converging interests.
Since his arrival at the White House on January 20, Joe Biden had suggested that Russia would be punished for the hacking of the American computer firm SolarWinds. It is through the latter that hackers, linked to the Russian foreign intelligence service, according to the US Treasury Department, attacked ministries and private companies. The interference also attributed to Russia by the American services in the presidential elections of 2016 and 2020 had also been mentioned.
Expulsion of ten Russian diplomats
This warning was translated in a classic way by the expulsion of ten Russian diplomats present in the United States and presented by the White House as intelligence agents. These expulsions were accompanied by sanctions against Russian companies allegedly involved in hacks, with that of Solarwinds in 2020 being officially attributed to Russia for the first time with “A high degree of confidence”.
Thirty-two entities and people found to be involved in electoral interference were also punished, including Konstantin Kilimnik. This associate of Donald Trump’s former campaign manager in 2016, Paul Manafort, is accused, again for the first time explicitly by the US Treasury, of having provided Russian intelligence services with election data from the team Republican campaign, without the use that may have been made of it being specified.
Washington also imposed sanctions on eight people and entities linked to the occupation of Crimea, unilaterally annexed by Moscow in 2014, in agreement with the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada.
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