New sanctions: Russians are offered to ban entry to the US

Former commander-in-chief of NATO's Joint Forces in Europe, retired US Navy Admiral James Stavridis believes that the US response to Russian intervention in US elections in 2016 was too soft, and calls for new sanctions to warn Moscow against similar actions in 2020. He writes about this in his column for Time.

Photo: Facebook James Stavridis

“Without a doubt, we received from the Russians a direct attack at the very heart of our democratic system - and, no doubt, we responded little beyond a few symbolic gestures. The main question today should be: how can we prevent this from happening in 2020? And more specifically: how can we take revenge on Russia now that we have all the facts?” writes Stavridis.

He pays tribute to the fact that the United States imposed retaliatory sanctions against Russia in 2018, brought dozens of Russian intelligence agents, military and political leaders of the middle level to clear water, froze assets and blocked travel for these people and some companies, but this is not enough. These measures affect a relatively small group of Russians and are not very noticeable. They will not attract the attention of President Putin for a minute. ”

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The retired admiral believes that now the United States should not only introduce new sanctions on Russian banks and energy companies, as planned, but also extend restrictive measures on government structures and organizations.

“We should also consider sanctions against government agencies (sports teams, orchestras, scientific institutes, diplomatic delegations), as well as specific sanctions against key Russian leaders, including Putin,” he says.

Stavridis proposes to disclose details about the personal financial arrangements of such people, to impose sanctions on foreign companies that deal with their assets.

“While we have not taken such steps in the past against the leader of a country with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and his most senior team, an attack on us in 2016 requires unprecedented measures,” Stavridis emphasizes.

In addition to sanctions, in his opinion, the United States can use alternative methods, for example, providing both explicit and covert support to “individuals and groups in Russia who want to support democracy,” as well as limiting the opportunities for Russians to visit the United States.

“We can impose broader travel restrictions on Russian citizens to the United States. Or we could reduce our willingness to cooperate on other Russian initiatives around the world, from reconstruction in Syria to support for oil prices,” he writes.

Stavridis believes that such actions will be clearly proportional, given the high level of destruction that Russia inflicted on the democratic process in America.

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“We could justifiably take action now or warn the Russians that if any further violations occur, we will use such mechanisms against them. This can be communicated either publicly or through so-called diplomatic mechanisms,” he says.

In addition, Stavridis insists that it is important to increase the literacy of the population in the issue of working with social networks.

“We need to educate our children from a very young age about what information is real and what is fake, especially in the digital arena,” he says.

He stresses that the United States has all the tools for Russia’s response to the attack on democracy, but “we did not use them sufficiently.”

• The United States and Russia have long-standing controversies about Russia's interference in the US election in 2016. In particular, the Russian special services were involved in hacking the servers of the Democratic Party.
• March 24 US Special Prosecutor Robert Muller Announces 2019 findings of an investigation about "Russian trail in the US elections". According to him, the intervention of Moscow really was, however, Donald Trump and the members of his headquarters had nothing to do with this.
• Trump's associates were also blamed for ties with Russia. Michael Flynn was an adviser to the president of the United States for less than a month. 14 February 2017 of the year he resigned after information appeared that, without authority, he discussed by telephone US sanctions against Russia with former Russian ambassador to Washington Sergey Kislyak and hid it from Vice President Mike Pence. In 2017 year Flynn confessed to the FBI. false information about their contacts with Russia. Flynn’s work has been the occasion for several investigations, one of which headed by the ex-head of the FBI, James Komi. In early May 2018, he was fired by Trump. Officially - for the "incompetence."
• As part of the investigation of the interference of the Russian Federation in the elections in the United States, the charge was brought against the former head of the electoral headquarters of Trump Half Manafort. He was accused of plotting against US interests.
• Because of Russia's interference in US elections and the Kremlin’s actions in Ukraine, Americans have repeatedly introduced sanctions against Russia.

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