Obama retaliates against Russia for election hacking
"All Americans should be alarmed by Russia's actions," Obama said, adding, "Such activities have consequences."
He said the response wasn't over and the U.S. could take further, covert action — a thinly veiled reference to a counterstrike in cyberspace the U.S. has been considering.
Trump issued a statement saying it was "time for our country to move on to bigger and better things." Yet in the face of newly public evidence, he suggested he was keeping an open mind.
"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," Trump said.
As part of the punishment, the U.S. also kicked out 35 Russian diplomats who the U.S. said were actually intelligence operatives, and shut down a pair of Russian compounds, in New York and Maryland. The U.S. said those actions were in response to Russia's harassment of U.S. diplomats, calling it part of a pattern of aggression that included the cyberattacks on the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman.
It was the strongest action the Obama administration has taken to date to retaliate for a cyberattack, and more comprehensive than last year's sanctions on North Korea after it hacked Sony Pictures Entertainment. The new penalties add to existing U.S. sanctions over Russia's actions in Ukraine, which have impaired Russia's economy but had limited impact on President Vladimir Putin's behavior.
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