The Biden administration declared a national emergency on Thursday, slapping sanctions on more than three dozen people in Russia and expelling 10 diplomats, in an about face after the US pulled back two warships heading to the Black Sea.
President Biden reversed course on the warships just before his announcement of the fresh sanctions and after Russia warned the US ships to “stay away for their own good.”
Biden on Tuesday had emphasized on a call with Russian President Vladmimr Putin “the United States’ unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” and “voiced our concerns over the sudden Russian military build-up in Crimea and on Ukraine’s borders, calling on Russia to de-escalate tensions.”
As a result, the US, alarmed by the military buildup in eastern Ukraine and Russia’s moving warships and landing craft from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea, said it was sending the two warships to the Black Sea. But the ships were turned around on Wednesday night following the Russian warnings.
“We have no desire to be in an escalating war with Russia,” a senior administration official said Thursday on a briefing call with reporters, adding that it didn’t want the situation to spin “out of control,” Politico reported.
“We do not seek a downward spiral. We can and think we can avoid that,” the official said.
Still, administration officials said the US “will not accept its destabilizing behavior that harms the United States, its allies and its partners.”
The reversal came as the Biden administration declared a national emergency on Thursday morning, signing an executive order that slapped sanctions on more than three dozen people in Russia and expelled 10 diplomats.
Biden signed the order, which detailed Russia’s actions in the SolarWinds cyber-intrusion and its interference in the election, accusing the Kremlin of working to “undermine the conduct of free and fair democratic elections and democratic institutions in the United States and its allies and partners,” according to a statement from the White House.
Russia also engaged in “malicious cyber-enabled activities against the United States and its allies and partners,” the statement said.
The combined actions “constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.”
In Tuesday’s call to Putin on Tuesday, Biden foreshadowed the sanctions, warning the Russian leader that “the United States will act firmly in defense of its national interests in response to Russia’s actions, such as cyber intrusions and election interference,” the White House said.
The US intelligence community concluded that Putin directed Russian efforts to influence the election, but found no evidence that Russia or anyone else changed or manipulated votes.
The FBI earlier this year pointed at Russia as being behind the cyber attack in which hackers piggybacked on the SolarWinds software to install malicious software when the companies and agencies updated their servers. The breach exposed personal data at scores of federal agencies, including the Treasury Department and the Justice Department, as well as hundreds of private companies.
Among the measures announced Thursday are Treasury Department sanctions against six Russian companies linked to the cyber-hacking and 32 individuals involved in the election interference.
In partnership with the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada, the US sanctioned eight individuals associated with Russia’s continuing military occupation of Crimea.
Russia condemned the sanctions as “illegal” and vowed to respond.
”We condemn any pursuit of sanctions, we consider them illegal. In any case, the principle of reciprocity in this matter is valid; reciprocity in a way that best serves our interests,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to the Russian news agency Tass.He also said the penalties will jeopardize negotiations over a summit between Biden and Putin.
“It goes without saying that possible sanctions being discussed would by no means promote such a meeting,” he said.Putin annexed Crimea in 2014 and Russian forces have been backing pro-separatist militants there since then, resulting in thousands of casualties among Ukrainian and Russian troops.
The US sanctions come as tensions between Washington and Moscow are on edge.
Video captioned “ready to fight” that surfaced recently by Russian soldiers shows them moving armored vehicles and tanks into position near the Ukraine border.
One scene labeled “military training” shows a large piece of crane-like machinery behind a corrugated metal fence.
“It’s still too early to talk about this meeting in tangible terms. It’s a new proposal and it will be studied,” Peskov said, adding that more talks would occur on the diplomatic level.
With Post wires
