Obama expels Russian diplomats, imposes new sanctions

U.S. President Barack Obama took unprecedented measures against the Russian Federation on Dec. 29, expelling 35 “intelligence operatives” and shutting down two Russian offices in the New York and Washington areas in response to alleged hackings of Democrat Party organizations in order to influence election results. In addition, Obama imposed a new series of economic sanctions against nine entities and individuals in response to “certain cyber activity that seeks to interfere with or undermine our election processes and institutions, or those of our allies and partners.”

As its response, the Russian government criticized the decision as “unjustified and illegal under international law,” belittling Obama’s foreign policy as “unpredictable and even aggressive.” Its statement vowed an “adequate, reciprocal” response “that will deliver significant discomfort to the U.S. side in the same areas.” A tweet from the Russian Embassy in Washington referred to the decision as “Cold War déjà vu,” underneath a picture of a lame duck.

Zenon Zawada: Obama has taken a series of dramatic foreign policy steps in his last days in office, which has sparked criticism that they needlessly complicate U.S. foreign relations, particularly when U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will likely attempt to reverse most of them. (He has already indicated this with Obama’s decision to allowing the anti-Israeli settlement UN resolution.) With regard to Russia, the actual evidence has yet to surface of attempted hacking to influence the elections, let alone if these attempts succeeded.

As for the Ukraine-related sanctions, we are confident that Trump won’t touch them during his first year in office. Instead he will have to begin building a coalition in the U.S. Congress that will agree to relax or remove Ukraine-related sanctions. And the success of finding that coalition will depend on his domestic policies and poll ratings. In addition, he will have to gain from Putin security guarantees for Ukraine if he were to relax or remove sanctions, and prepare safeguards should those guarantees be violated.