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US Treasury Sanctions 16 Russians For Hacking, Election Meddling (engadget.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Engadget: The Treasury Department has leveled sanctions against 16 current and former GRU intelligence officers (some of whom were targeted in earlier indictments) for their involvement in multiple campaigns against the U.S., including the Democratic National Committee hacks, World Anti-Doping Agency hacks and election meddling efforts. The targets include Elena Khusyaynova, the primary accountant for the Project Lakhta influence campaign that included the Internet Research Agency. The sanctions also target associated entities like the Federal News Agency.
As with the indictments, the sanctions will only have a limited effect. The measure blocks all property and interests from these people that might be in U.S. jurisdictions, and Americans are "generally prohibited" from conducting transactions with them. The targets live in Russia, though, and it's doubtful that they'll travel to countries where the sanctions will hit them. This is more a symbolic gesture than one intended to curb Russian hacks and manipulation attempts.
As with the indictments, the sanctions will only have a limited effect. The measure blocks all property and interests from these people that might be in U.S. jurisdictions, and Americans are "generally prohibited" from conducting transactions with them. The targets live in Russia, though, and it's doubtful that they'll travel to countries where the sanctions will hit them. This is more a symbolic gesture than one intended to curb Russian hacks and manipulation attempts.
Spies in 2012-2014 caught trying to recruit US:
"Evgeny Buryakov, 39, who posed as an employee in the New York City office of a Russian bank [VTB bank], according to the federal complaint. The man he met regularly for the handoffs was Igor Sporyshev, 40, "
https://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/27/us/new-york-alleged-russian-spy/index.html
They went around New York developers offering lucrative Moscow property deals in exchange for getting sanctions lifted against Russia.
VTB bank, the bank involved, were sanctioned, the spies were prosecuted and their diplomat handlers kicked out.
This is why Trump was negotiating Trump Tower Moscow all through the election, which would have seen him basically receive $130 million in name licensing fees, and it's why VTB bank was to finance the project.
This is why he lied about the deal, despite knowing he'd already signed onto the deal, and continued to lie until Cohen's trial.
This is why his lawyer, Giuliani, lied about him signing the deal, only admitting Trump had signed it when confronted with the contract.
This is Moscow hid the deal, and went along with Trump's lie, helping him conceal it. They knew he was lying, they had a copy of the letter of intent he so carefully hid from the FBI... yet they cooperated in the lie.
You see why Trump just handed control of Syria over to Moscow? There's trust there, Trump knew Putin would conceal the lies he was telling to the FBI.
Actually, deliberately spreading false statements in an effort to sway voters one way or another sounds like election meddling to me -- trying to add votes is called fraud, not meddling.
US, UK, Italy, Brazil,... People are falling for it everywhere.
Actually, deliberately spreading false statements in an effort to sway voters one way or another sounds like election meddling to me -- trying to add votes is called fraud, not meddling.
And who is the anointed judge of which statements are true, and which are false?
You, presumably.
Truth exists. You can ignore it or call it lies, but you can't ignore the consequences of ignoring it. Many things were said by Trump and the Russian aids that were trivially proven untrue, usually with a 30 second Google search.
The fact that Trump defends this behaviour after the fact by minimizing it and ignoring it, or flat out lying, is extremely shameful and a complete and total violation of his oath of office. He swore to protect the country against ALL enemies foreign and domestic. Any entity that promotes propaganda and lies is an enemy, for a democratic society depends on truth for its proper functioning.
The average voting American citizen has the equivalent of the 8th grade education. (they may have a higher degree in actuality, but after 8th grade, most students start to diverge and focus on their specialties).
So think about your political knowledge back in 8th grade, you have a general idea on how the US government power is distributed, what the elected officials in general do. But most of your view on politics is based on your Family, friends, church and neighbors.
Myself I grew up near a blue state capital (most of my friends and neighbors where State Employees and very Democrat), but my family is very republican. So I grew up with conflicting messages, probably why I am a moderate today, because I can understand the points made and realize the other side isn't the evil monster as partisans tend to express.
So what did the Russians hackers do that meddled in the elections? Realizing the general naivete of the population, they were able to find what topic they feel strongly about (not overly political), find a group of people with an opposing idea. Befriend both sides and radicalize them, so topics like police shooting unarmed minorities, because they assume they are dangerous because of their looks, becomes political. And they are painted as only caring for the minority and not the general population. While the other side is painted as racist.
So now we have Hillary Clinton who was a public servant vs Donald Trump, who was a boastful personality. Your Russian Friends who are now influencing you and your feelings and pushing your view on topics to the extreme, have now either turned you in a loud mouth radical, or seeing the other side (mainly Clinton) as the enemy.
I heard a lot of Trump Voters who voted for him, not because they liked Trump, but because they were afraid of Clinton, because to them the Clinton Supporters seemed like crazed LiBeRaLs who wanted to bankrupt the country with all their welfare, and because of e-Mails which in the grand scheme of things was just stupid. While Trump with Russian Facebook influence was moderated down, and outraged was calmed, to well he will change after becoming president.
If the Russian Trolls were saying they were Russians pushing a political agenda in America it wouldn't be so bad, as people would take it as such. But they pretend to be peoples friends, and are US Citizens like them. Just to influence the elections and the government.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.