There is a new man in town. President Joe Biden warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that he would not tolerate Moscow putting a bounty on the heads of American soldiers again. He would not tolerate aggression along the Ukrainian border where Putin has staged 80,000 troops. And Biden definitely would not tolerate the insidious monumental cyber espionage hack that occurred under the last resident in the White House. Now, Biden put his teeth in these warnings.
He who has the best weapons wins. That is how the United States rose to power, with its innovations. Now, it is time for America to not only equal Russian and Chinese hacking abilities but to rise far above them.
President Biden announced he would sanction Russia for its cyber espionage into U.S. elections “foreign influence operations around U.S. elections, and other concerns,” NBC reported. As soon as he took office, 46 had his people review Russia’s huge hack into SolarWinds which opened the door to the inner workings of the U.S. government. The American president also included “the poisoning of Alexei Navalny and reported Russian bounties on U.S. service members in Afghanistan” in that review.
Biden spoke with Putin by phone on Tuesday and:
‘[President Biden] made clear 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 new Secretary of State Antony Blinken released a statement that read:
‘These actions are intended to hold Russia to account for its reckless actions. We will act firmly in response to Russian actions that cause harm to us or our allies and partners. Where possible, the United States will also seek opportunities for cooperation with Russia, with the goal of building a more stable and predictable relationship consistent with U.S. interests.’
The president signed an executive order via the Treasury Department that forbids any American financial organizations from buying bonds in:
‘Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation, or the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation after June 14 and from lending funds to these institutions. The directive also leaves open the possibility for the administration to expand the sanctions on Russian sovereign debt.’
He was not done. The American president kicked 10 Russian diplomats out of Washington. The U.S. officials indicated these people were actually Russian intelligence operatives. Then, President Biden sanctioned six Russian technology firms for apparently giving Russia U.S. intelligence information plus 32 people. President Biden indicated they were involved with hacking to influence our 2020 election against POTUS.
Our government discovered that Russia had hacked SolarWinds software in a way that gave Moscow access to “18,000 customers, successfully compromising nine federal agencies and 100 private-sector groups.”
The FBI, the National Security Agency, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency sent out an alert Thursday. It detailed the weak links that would allow Russia to hack.
The administration, in coordination with U.S. allies, already announced sanctions to punish Russia for poisoning Putin’s opponent Navalny and jailing him.
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
