WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has imposed sanctions on Russian officials and intelligence services in retaliation for Russia's interference in the U.S. presidential election by hacking American political sites and email accounts.

The State Department also has kicked out 35 Russian diplomats from its embassy in Washington and consulate in San Francisco, giving them and their families 72 hours to leave the U.S. The diplomats were declared persona non grata for acting in a "manner inconsistent with their diplomatic status."

Obama said Russians will no longer have access to two Russian government-owned compounds in the United States, in Maryland and in New York.

Russian officials have denied the Obama administration's accusation that the Russian government was trying to influence the U.S. presidential election.

U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia's goal was to help Donald Trump win — an assessment Trump has dismissed as ridiculous.</s>The Russian Foreign Ministry has proposed expelling 35 American diplomats from Russia. The plan comes as a proportional response to new U.S. sanctions against Russia for its alleged hacking of institutions related to the U.S. presidential election.

According Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's proposal, Russia should expel 31 employees of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and four employees of the General Consulate in St. Petersburg. The diplomats' names were not mentioned in the proposal.

Lavrov also proposed banning U.S. Embassy employees from using both a warehouse located on Dorozhnaya Ulitsa and a dacha in Serebryany Bor.

On Thursday, the Obama administration ejected 35 Russian intelligence operatives from the United States and imposed sanctions on Russia’s two leading intelligence services. The U.S. also sanctioned four intelligence officers who belong to the military unit Washington says ordered the hacking attacks on the Democratic National Committee and other political institutions.

Earlier today, CNN reported that Russia would close the Anglo-American School of Moscow in response to the sanctions. However, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova later denied that this was true.</s>In a sweeping response to election hacking, U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday sanctioned Russian intelligence services and their top officials, kicked out 35 Russian officials and shuttered two Russian-owned compounds in the U.S. It was the strongest action the Obama administration has taken to date to retaliate for a cyberattack.

"All Americans should be alarmed by Russia's actions," Obama said in a statement released while he was vacationing in Hawaii. He added: "Such activities have consequences."

Obama ordered sanctions against two Russian intelligence services, the GRU and the FSB, plus companies the U.S. says support the GRU. The cybersecurity firm hired by the Democratic National Committee to investigate theft of its emails determined earlier this year the hacking came from the Fancy Bear group, believed to be affiliated with the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency.
• Obama urges Trump to take Russian hacking seriously

The president also sanctioned Lt- Gen. Korobov, the head of GRU, and three of his deputies. Other individuals sanctioned include Alexei Belan and Yevgeny Bogachev, two Russian nationals who have been wanted by the FBI for cyber crimes for years.

Obama said the hacking "could only have been directed by the highest levels of the Russian government," a contention the U.S. has used to suggest Russian President Vladimir Putin was personally involved.

72 hours to get out

Although the White House announced at the same time it was kicking out Russian officials and closing facilities, it said those were responses to other troubling Russian behaviour: harassment of U.S. diplomats by Russian personnel and police.

The 35 Russian diplomats being kicked out are intelligence operatives, Obama said. The State Department said they were being declared "persona non grata," and they were given 72 hours to leave the country.

The two compounds being closed down are recreational facilities owned by Russia's government, one in Maryland and one in New York, the U.S. said. The White House said Russia had been notified that Russia would be denied access to the sites starting noon on Friday.

Russian officials have denied the Obama administration's accusation that the Russian government was involved at the highest levels in trying to influence the U.S. presidential election.

U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia's goal was to help Donald Trump win — an assessment Trump has dismissed as ridiculous.

The move puts the president-elect in the position of having to decide whether to roll back the measures once in office.</s>The government of the United States Thursday expelled 35 Russian diplomats from Washington and San Francisco, US Department of State said in an official statement. Meanwhile, lawmaker Vladimir Dzhabarov, who is Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council's (Parliamantary Upper House) warned that reciprocal steps will be made with regards to the U.S. embassy in Moscow and, quite possibly, the consulates will be cut down in size as well. In any case, it is believed that this decision will destroy diplomatic relations between the two countries, as one Kremlin source put it.

It was also announced on Thursday that two Russian compounds in Maryland and New York, used by Russian personnel for intelligence-related activities, will be closed and access to the compounds will be denied to all Russian diplomats as of Friday noon.

The 35 diplomats are said to be in fact intelligence operatives who have been declared persona non grata and were given 72 hours to leave the country. Washington accuses the Russian military's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) of hacking information with the intent to interfere with the US election - along with help from the Federal Security Service (FSB).

US President Barack Obama said he implemented the sanctions in response to the Russian government's aggressive harassment of US officials and cyber operations aimed at last month's US election. All Americans should be alarmed by Russia's actions, Obama said in a statement and added that the actions were not the sum total of our response to Russia's aggressive activities.

We will continue to take a variety of actions at a time and place of our choosing, some of which will not be publicized, he said.

Obama's administration is expected in the coming days to provide a report to Congress regarding Russia's efforts to interfere in last month's vote, as well as other malicious cyber activity related to previous elections.

Three US intelligence agencies concluded earlier this month that Russia was behind hacks into the Democratic Party and leaked documents ahead of the US presidential election on November 8.

 The agencies also agreed that Russia sought to intervene to help President-elect Donald Trump and other Republican candidates into office. Both Russia and Trump have denied and dismissed the findings.

With Trump due to take office in the White House on January 20, Obama's move puts the president-elect in the position of having to decide whether to retract the measures once sworn in.</s>The Obama administration on Thursday announced its retaliation for Russian efforts to interfere with the US presidential election, ordering sweeping new sanctions that included the expulsion of 35 Russians.

US intelligence services believe Russia ordered cyber-attacks on the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Hillary Clinton’s campaign and other political organizations, in an attempt to influence the election in favor of the Republican candidate, Donald Trump.

In a statement issued two weeks after the president said he would respond to cyber-attacks by Moscow “at a time and place of our choosing”, Obama said Americans should “be alarmed by Russia’s actions” and pledged further action.

“I have issued an executive order that provides additional authority for responding to certain cyber activity that seeks to interfere with or undermine our election processes and institutions, or those of our allies or partners,” Obama said in the statement, released while he was vacationing with his family in Hawaii.

“Using this new authority, I have sanctioned nine entities and individuals: the GRU and the FSB, two Russian intelligence services; four individual officers of the GRU; and three companies that provided material support to the GRU’s cyber operations.

“In addition, the secretary of the treasury is designating two Russian individuals for using cyber-enabled means to cause misappropriation of funds and personal identifying information.” He also announced the closure of two Russian compounds in the US.

Obama added that more actions would be taken, “some of which will not be publicized”.

On Thursday, Trump, who has previously dismissed reports of Russian interference in the election, said in a statement: “It’s time for our country to move on to bigger and better things.”

He added, however, that “in the interest of our country and its great people, I will meet with leaders of the intelligence community next week in order to be updated on the facts of this situation.”

In a conference call with reporters, senior White House officials said the president-elect’s transition team was informed of the sanctions before they were announced on Thursday. Trump and Obama spoke on Wednesday, they said.

The officials added that the actions were a necessary response to “very disturbing Russian threats to US national security”.

“There has to be a cost and a consequence for what Russia has done,” a senior administration official said. “It is in a extraordinary step for them to interfere in the democratic process here in the United States of America. There needs to be a price for that.”

In Moscow, a Putin spokesman said Russia regretted the new sanctions and would consider retaliatory measures.

Diplomatic expulsions are normally met with exactly reciprocal action. In this case, however, Moscow may pause for thought. With Trump, who has spoken positively about Russia and Vladimir Putin, just three weeks away from the White House, Russia may feel it is inadvisable to kick out 35 US diplomats.

However, Russian authorities on Thursday ordered the Anglo-American School of Moscow closed, according to CNN, citing a US official briefed on the matter. The school serves children of US, British and Canadian embassy personnel, and would effectively make a Russian posting difficult for US diplomats with families.

Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of the international affairs committee in the upper house of the Russian parliament, was quoted by the RIA news agency as saying the US move represented “the death throes of political corpses”.

The Twitter feed of the Russian embassy in London, meanwhile, called the Obama administration “hapless” and attached a picture of a duck with the word “LAME” emblazoned across it.

On the White House call, officials were asked about the prospect of Trump overturning the sanctions. They acknowledged that a future president could reverse course but warned against such an “inadvisable” step.

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 “We have no reason to believe that Russia’s activities will cease,” a senior official said. “One reason why I think it is necessary to sustain these actions is because there’s every reason to believe Russia will interfere with future US elections.”

On Capitol Hill, Democrats applauded the president’s action, called for further measures and emphasized bipartisan support for a thorough investigation into Russian hacking.

“I hope the incoming Trump administration, which has been far too close to Russia throughout the campaign and transition, won’t think for one second about weakening these new sanctions or our existing regime,” incoming Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.

“Both parties ought to be united in standing up to Russian interference in our elections, to their cyber attacks, their illegal annexation of Crimea and other extra-legal interventions.”

Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, called for further sanctions from the new Congress when it convenes in January.

GOP leaders were quick to frame the new sanctions as too little, too late.

“While today’s action by the administration is overdue,” House speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement, “it is an appropriate way to end eight years of failed policy with Russia. And it serves as a prime example of this administration’s ineffective foreign policy that has left America weaker in the eyes of the world.”

Republican senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, two of Russia’s fiercest critics, echoed Ryan but also called for tough Congressional sanctions.

“Ultimately, [the sanctions] are a small price for Russia to pay for its brazen attack on American democracy,” the two men said in a joint statement. “We intend to lead the effort in the new Congress to impose stronger sanctions on Russia.”

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 The 35 Russian diplomats being expelled are “intelligence operatives”, Obama said. The state department has declared them “persona non grata” and they will be given 72 hours to leave the country.

Starting on Friday at noon, the White House said, Russia will be denied access to compounds in Maryland and New York that have been used for intelligence-related purposes.

A statement from the state department said the diplomatic expulsions were a response not only to hacking but to “a pattern of harassment of our diplomats overseas, that has increased over the last four years, including a significant increase in the last 12 months”.

The statement said the harassment has included “arbitrary police stops, physical assault, and the broadcast on state TV of personal details about our personnel that put them at risk”.

For some time, US diplomats in Russia have anecdotally reported being followed and harassed by police.

In June, a US diplomat was wrestled to the ground by a policeman as he scrambled to get inside the embassy. Russian authorities said the man was a CIA agent operating under diplomatic cover.</s>WASHINGTON – Prominent members of the Republican party are getting behind President Barack Obama’s new sanctions against Russia following US intelligence agency accusations it influenced the 2016 election.

On Thursday (29 December) Obama declared 35 Russian diplomats ‘persona non grata’ and gave them 72 hours to leave the the country. The State Department also ordered the shuttering of two Russian diplomatic retreats in Maryland and New York.

“The retaliatory measures announced by the Obama Administration today are long overdue. But ultimately, they are a small price for Russia to pay for its brazen attack on American democracy,” said Senators Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham in a joint-statement. The two said they “intend to lead the effort in the new Congress to impose stronger sanctions on Russia.”

Former Republican presidential primary candidate Florida Senator Marco Rubio threw his support behind stronger sanctions as well. “I welcome the measures taken today to check Russian aggression and look forward to working with congressional leaders from both parties in the months ahead to strengthen these penalties,” he said.

Rubio warned that “Putin has become so emboldened that he authorized the harassment of US personnel in Russia and attempted to undermine American democracy by meddling in our election.”

Diplomatic relations between the two countries has frayed since 2014 when Obama placed a first set of sanctions on Russian oligarchs, politicians, and corporations following President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of the Crimean region of Ukraine. Over the past year American diplomats throughout Europe have complained of being harassed and intimidated by Russian intelligence and security services. One diplomat said an intruder even pooped on the carpet in his living room.

Top Republican, House Speaker Paul Ryan, condemned Russia as well, saying it “does not share America’s interests” and “has consistently sought to undermine them, sowing dangerous instability around the world.” Both Ryan and Rubio accused the Obama administration’s “ineffective foreign policy” as being at the root of the conflict between the nations.

Obama’s announcement coincided with the release of a Department of Homeland Security and FBI file that draws a link between the hacking and theft of emails from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Clinton campaign’s emails and Russian intelligence.

These stolen emails were published by WikiLeaks throughout the 2016 campaign. More evidence drawing a connection between the hackers and Russian intelligence was published by a civilian cybersecurity firm last week. A secret CIA report revealed by the Washington Post is said to have clearly set out that Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to influence the election.

Republican President-elect Donald Trump has denied and resisted claims that Russia is behind the hacks and has accused American intelligence agencies of being driven by politics. “It’s time for our country to move on to bigger and better things,” he said in a statement on the sanctions.

“Nevertheless, in the interest of our country and its great people,” he said, “I will meet with leaders of the intelligence community next week in order to be updated on the facts of this situation.”

A full review of the evidence held by American intelligence agencies is expected before Trump’s inauguration on 20 January.</s>The United States expelled 35 Russian diplomats and closed two Russian compounds in New York and Maryland in response to a campaign of harassment against American diplomats in Moscow, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday.

The move against the diplomats from the Russian embassy in Washington and consulate in San Francisco is part of a series of actions announced on Thursday to punish Russia for a campaign of intimidation of American diplomats in Moscow and interference in the U.S. election.

The Obama administration was also announcing on Thursday a series of retaliatory measures against Russia for hacking into U.S. political institutions and individuals and leaking information to help President-elect Donald Trump and other Republican candidates, two U.S. officials said.

Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has called for better relations with Russia. It was not clear if he will be able to immediately overturn the measures announced on Thursday.

The Russian diplomats would have 72 hours to leave the United States, the official said. Access to the two compounds, which are used by Russian officials for intelligence gathering, will be denied to all Russian officials as of noon on Friday, the senior U.S. official added.</s>The Russian government will send a plane to ferry its diplomats out of the U.S., after President Obama expelled them in a new round of sanctions against the country for its alleged meddling in the presidential election.

On Thursday, the president labeled 35 Russian diplomats from the country's embassy in Washington, DC and consulate in San Francisco 'persona non grata' - giving them 72 hours to get out of the country.

Previous reports stated that some of the diplomats were having a hard time booking travel out of the U.S. at the last minute and during the holiday season.

Russian officials are addressing the issue by sending a plane to the U.S. to pick up these expelled diplomats and their families, ensuring they are out of the country by Obama's New Year's Day deadline, the Kremlin announced Friday.

'For diplomats and their families to leave the United States, an aircraft of the Rossiya Special Flight Squadron of the Russian Presidential Property Management Directorate will be sent to the US,' the press release read.

In their announcement on Twitter, the Kremlin included a picture of the Rossiya Special Flight Squadron aircraft that will be sent to the U.S.

Rossiya Airlines is a subsidiary of Aeroflot - a 51 per cent state-owned air transportation company.

The expulsion of the 35 diplomats isn't the only part of President Obama's new round of sanctions.

The president is also closing two Russian diplomatic compounds in Maryland and New York and is sanctioning six Russian individuals and five Kremlin-associated entities.

President Obama said the sanctions were in response to Russia's allegedly coordinated hacks on the Republican and Democratic National Committees, that resulted in leaks he says were aimed at swaying the U.S. election.

The Kremlin has repeatedly denied such hacks.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has imposed sanctions on Russian officials and intelligence services in retaliation for Russia’s interference in the U.S. presidential election by hacking American political sites and email accounts.

The State Department also has kicked out 35 Russian diplomats from its embassy in Washington and consulate in San Francisco, giving them and their families 72 hours to leave the U.S. The diplomats were declared persona non grata for acting in a “manner inconsistent with their diplomatic status.”

Obama said Russians will no longer have access to two Russian government-owned compounds in the United States, in Maryland and in New York.

Russian officials have denied the Obama administration’s accusation that the Russian government was trying to influence the U.S. presidential election.

U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia’s goal was to help Donald Trump win — an assessment Trump has dismissed as ridiculous.</s>PHILADELPHIA (CNN)– Russia’s Foreign Ministry has recommended that the Kremlin expel 35 US diplomats from Russia in response to sanctions announced by Washington, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday.

Lavrov said his ministry proposed that 31 staff members be expelled from the US Embassy in Moscow and four from the US consulate in St Petersburg.

The Russian foreign minister called US allegations of Russia’s interference in the US election campaign “groundless.”

The US on Thursday ordered 35 Russian diplomats to leave the country and ordered the closure of two Russian compounds. The diplomats and their families were given 72 hours to leave the country.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Friday accused the Obama administration of ending its term in office “in anti-Russian agony.”

Posting on his official Twitter and Facebook accounts, Medvedev said, “Sadly, the Obama administration, which began its life with the restoration of cooperation, ends it in anti-Russian agony. RIP.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted Thursday that the claims of election meddling were “groundless” but said there was “absolutely no alternative to the principle of reciprocity” now that sanctions had been imposed.

The steps taken by President Barack Obama Thursday mark a new low in what have become increasingly frosty relations between Russia and the United States.

The Obama administration described Russia’s actions as “Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities” and sanctioned four Russian individuals and five Russian entities for what it said was election interference.

“Russia’s cyberactivities were intended to influence the election, erode faith in US democratic institutions, sow doubt about the integrity of our electoral process, and undermine confidence in the institutions of the US government,” a White House statement said. “These actions are unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”
The United States expels 35 Russian diplomats over the alleged Russian interference during the U.S.'s 2016 presidential election.