(Bloomberg) -- Vladimir Putin drew praise from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump after ruling out a tit-for-tat retaliation for the Obama administration's expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats in response to cyberattacks aimed at interfering with the U.S. election.
“Great move on delay (by V. Putin) - I always knew he was very smart!” Trump wrote on Twitter Friday, hours after Putin said Russia won't order U.S. diplomats out of the country in reaction to President Barack Obama's action the day before.
Trump's reply, which follows complimentary remarks about Putin he made during his campaign, puts him at odds with members of his own party in the U.S. Congress. They've criticized Putin while lauding Obama's decision to expel the Russians and impose sanctions in response to the hacking of Democratic Party e-mails amid the 2016 presidential election.
Putin said in a statement Friday that Russia “won't send anyone away” after his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was shown on state television recommending the ouster of U.S. personnel. “We won't descend to the level of irresponsible, kitchen diplomacy,” the Russian president said, adding that further steps to repair relations would depend on Trump's policies.
Vladimir Putin
The Russian government accused the outgoing U.S. administration of spending its last weeks in power trying to sabotage Trump's promised outreach to the Kremlin. Trump has said he wants to cooperate with Putin in fighting terrorism and may review sanctions that Obama imposed over Russia's involvement in a conflict in Ukraine.
Obama described the 35 Russians ejected from the U.S. as intelligence operatives working under diplomatic cover. The U.S. also imposed sanctions on top intelligence officials and said it shut down two Russian compounds -- one in Maryland and another in New York -- used for “intelligence-related purposes.” Russia has denied it was behind the hacking in the U.S.
Putin also invited children of American diplomats in the Russian capital to attend a traditional New Year's celebration in the Kremlin.
‘Grizzly Steppe'
As part of the U.S. administration's response, the FBI and Homeland Security Department also released a report with technical evidence intended to prove Russia's military and civilian intelligence services were behind the hacking and to expose some of their most sensitive hacking infrastructure. The report dubs the Russian operation “Grizzly Steppe.”
“All Americans should be alarmed by Russia's actions,” Obama said in a statement on Thursday. “These data-theft and disclosure activities could only have been directed by the highest levels of the Russian government.”
Obama's actions put Trump in a bind less than a month before his inauguration. Reversing course would effectively reject the findings of U.S. intelligence agencies and put him at odds with the Republican leaders in Congress who called the sanctions a necessary step.
The Republican chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, called Obama's move “a step in the right direction,” saying that “post-Cold War Russia has taken a dark turn under Vladimir Putin.” Separately, Republican Senator John McCain, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, scheduled a hearing on foreign cyber threats to the U.S. for next week.
In a brief statement Thursday Trump said that while “it's time for our country to move on to bigger and better things,” he'll meet with intelligence officials next week to get their assessment of the Russian hacking.
There are no immediate plans for Trump or his representatives to contact Putin's government before inauguration day, spokesman Sean Spicer added Friday on a conference call with reporters. “The priority right now is for the president-elect to get an update from the intelligence community,” he said.
Obama's homeland security adviser, Lisa Monaco, said on MSNBC Thursday that the administration had notified Trump's team about the White House response before it was announced but there had been no consultation with the president-elect.
Trump's Skepticism
Trump has repeatedly scoffed at the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia was behind the pilfering and steady release of e-mails from Democratic National Committee and party officials in order to damage the campaign of Hillary Clinton. Trump has said the hacking could have been the work of “somebody sitting in a bed someplace” and told reporters Wednesday that “we ought to get on with our lives” instead of rehashing the cyberattack.
Russia hopes that it can ride out the storm and put ties with the U.S. on a better track once Trump takes office, said Fyodor Lukyanov, chairman of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, a Kremlin foreign-policy advisory group.
“Russia views these not as U.S. sanctions, but Obama sanctions, so he will go and we can both decide that we don't bear any responsibility for the actions of a jackass,” Lukyanov said.
Analysts with the Eurasia Group predicted that the U.S. moves won't deter Russia from future cyber actions or cause it to change its policies on Syria or Ukraine.
“The new sanctions will mildly impede the likely détente between the incoming administration of Donald Trump and Russia, but we still expect Trump to ease Ukraine-related sanctions in 2017,” the New York-based research group said in a note Friday.
Technical Evidence
White House officials said Obama's successor could reverse the executive actions but suggested Trump may not want to be in the position of letting Russian spies return and giving Moscow a green light to meddle in European and U.S. politics. The U.S. has indications that Russia will try to interfere with elections on all levels, according to one of the officials who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.
Read more about U.S. intelligence findings on the hacking attacks.
Among those targeted in the sanctions announced by the Treasury Department were the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency, and the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the main successor agency to the KGB. Cybersecurity experts in the U.S. have linked the GRU to the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and party officials through a group they have nicknamed APT 28 or Fancy Bear. The U.S. also is sanctioning several cyber companies associated with them.
In addition, two Russians accused of commercial theft and fraud using computer networks were hit with sanctions. The two, Aleksey Belan and Evgeniy Bogachev, also are on the FBI's “Most Wanted” list.
Despite Trump's admiration for Putin, members of Congress from both parties have expressed alarm about the campaign hacking and praised the sanctions.
“While today's action by the administration is overdue, it is an appropriate way to end eight years of failed policy with Russia,” Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement. Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, who've been critical of Trump, said they would lead an effort in Congress to impose even tougher penalties on Russia.
Read more about who suspects what in hacking -- a QuickTake Q&A
In addition to the hacking, Obama cited an “unacceptable level of harassment” of U.S. diplomats in Moscow by Russian security services and police over the past year.
The sanctions and expulsions may be matched by covert countermeasures intended to warn Russia that the U.S. is able to breach its most sensitive computer systems, while preserving public deniability.
--With assistance from Justin Sink Nick Wadhams and Joe Sobczyk To contact the reporters on this story: Henry Meyer in Moscow at hmeyer4@bloomberg.net, Stepan Kravchenko in Moscow at skravchenko@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Gregory L. White at gwhite64@bloomberg.net, Torrey Clark, Larry Liebert
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