JUN 11, 2018 | 11:40 AM
| WASHINGTON
Citing “malicious” cyberattacks by Russian government agents, the Trump administration on Monday imposed economic sanctions on several Russian companies and persons accused of supporting Moscow’s spy networks.
Although Trump has spoken frequently of making Russia a closer ally, his administration has nevertheless imposed numerous sanctions packages for human rights violations, meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and other acts. By a nearly unanimous vote, Congress ordered some of the sanctions, which Trump then enacted only reluctantly.
In Monday’s action, the Treasury Department said it was blacklisting five Russian companies and three Russian citizens, most of whom have supplied material to or worked with Moscow’s Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, the main successor agency to the Soviet Union’s KGB.
All worked on development of “offensive” cyber and underwater capabilities, posing a danger to the security of the United States and its allies, Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said.
“The United States is committed to aggressively targeting any entity or individual working at the direction of the FSB whose work threatens the United States,” Mnuchin said.
Mnuchin said Russia’s “malign” activities included cyber intrusion into the U.S. energy grid and other infrastructure; an internet-chewing worm called Notpetya that cost several global conglomerates millions of dollars in damage; and the tracking of and possible interference with undersea communications cables that carry most of the world’s telecommunications data.
The blacklisting means any property or assets that the targeted people and companies have in U.S. jurisdiction will be frozen, and U.S. citizens may not do business with them.