Obama Authorizes Sanctions on Russia Over Its Involvement in US Elections

President Barack Obama authorized sanctions against Russian individuals and entities “determined to be responsible for tampering, altering, or causing the misappropriation of information with the purpose or effect of interfering with or undermining election processes or institutions,” the Treasury Department said (here). Obama added four individuals and five entities to the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list under cyber-related designations, while Treasury in a parallel action added two individuals to the SDN list for their alleged misappropriation of funds or economic resources, trade secrets, personal identifiers or financial information for private financial gain, Treasury said (here). “The integrity and stability of our electronic systems are of utmost importance to our national security and we will hold accountable those who seek to compromise or tamper with those systems,” Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said in a statement. “Treasury will use all of its financial tools as part of the U.S. Government’s effort to counter those who engage in malicious cyber activities against our financial system or our national institutions.”