Trump's First 100 Days

[GMDino]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/02/02/us-eases-some-economic-sanctions-against-russia/97399136/

Quote:U.S. eases restrictions on cyber-security sales to Russian spy agency


The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday eased some economic sanctions against Russia, specifically licensing cyber-security sales to the Russian Federal Security Service, the successor to the KGB, according to official documents.


The license, listed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Treasury Department, covers "all transactions and activities" involving the Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, that were prohibited by earlier executive orders.

It notes in particular that  "requesting, receiving, utilizing, paying for, or dealing in licenses, permits, certifications, or notifications issued or registered by the
Federal Security Service (FSB) for the importation, distribution, or use of information technology products in the Russian Federation," is allowed.

The initial sanctions, as imposed by President Obama in April 2015, were titled "Blocking the Property of Certain Persons Engaging in Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities." That was further strengthened in December in an order entitled, "Taking Additional Steps to Address the national emergency with Respect to Significant Malicious Cyber-enabled Activities."

In Washington, White House press secretary Sean Spicer denied the report.

“We’re not easing,” he said, adding that, “It is, from what I understand, a regular course of action” that Treasury takes when sanctions are imposed.

“It’s a fairly common practice for the Treasury Department, after sanctions are put in place, to go back and look at whether or not there needs to be specific carve-outs for different either industries, or products and services that need to be going back and forth,” he said.

Spicer maintained that it does not represent any shift in policy and referred further questions to the Treasury Department, which did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Quote:[/url][url=https://twitter.com/RepSwalwell] Follow
Rep. Eric Swalwell 

@RepSwalwell
#RussianHacking attacked our democracy. They should pay a price. @POTUS rewards them by rolling back sanctions against their team of hackers
11:59 AM - 2 Feb 2017

The December sanctions were put in place after Obama charged that the Russians sought to affect U.S. elections via cyber-espionage.

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., ranking member of a House CIA subcommittee, accused the Trump administration of “rewarding” the FSB for tampering with the U.S. elections.

“This is the same group (FSB) that, just a month ago, our intelligence community determined was responsible for the attack on our democracy,” Swalwell told USA TODAY. “We just made it easier for the same group to import into Russia the tools they could use to hack us or our allies again.”

Swalwell said he will explore methods for Congress to enact its own sanctions.

“We have French and German elections coming up, and we just made it easier (for the FSB) to go after them,” he said. “They can sharpen the knives and come after us again.”

The Russian news agency TASS, in reporting the easing of sanctions, said Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to make a statement on the decision.

"First we need to understand what it is all about," Peskov said, according to TASS. "If we turn to the rocket engines matter, we will see that our U.S. counterparts never impose sanctions that could damage their own interests."

The move comes as some members of Congress have proposed adding new sanctions to Russia in connection with the hacking allegations.

Last month, Republican Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham pushed for greater sanctions against Russia for trying to influence the U.S. election and said then President-elect Donald Trump was in danger of being in conflict with congressional Republicans if he didn't get tougher on Russian President Vladimir Putin.