Updated 1915 GMT (0315 HKT) December 28, 2016
The Obama administration is
preparing to announce, as soon as Thursday, a series of retaliation measures
against Russia for meddling in the US election, according to American officials
briefed on the plans.
The actions are expected to
include expanded sanctions and diplomatic measures, the officials said, in what
the administration deems a proportional response to a Russian operation that
went beyond cyber hacking activities common among nations.
Russia will respond to any
"hostile steps" that the US may take in response to allegations of
hacking during the 2016 election, according to the official representative for
the ministry.
Some of the steps are expected
to name individuals associated with a Russian disinformation campaign that US
intelligence officials say used hacked information from mostly Democratic Party
organizations and officials to attack the Hillary Clinton presidential
campaign.
Official representative for
Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, said in a statement on
the ministry's website, "If Washington really does take new hostile steps,
they will be answered ... any action against Russian diplomatic missions in the
US will immediately bounce back on US diplomats in Russia."
She went on to say of the
hacking, "frankly, we are tired about the lies about Russian hackers --
it's misinformation by Obama administration aimed at providing an excuse for
its own failure."
US officials have also said
the federal government plans some unannounced actions taken through covert
means at a time of its choosing.
The retaliatory measures are
separate from an intelligence report President Barack Obama ordered on foreign
hacking of US election entities. That report expected in early January will
include declassified intelligence information on cyber hacks by China in 2008
and 2012, as well as the hacking and disinformation activities by Russian
intelligence agencies in the 2016 campaign, the officials said.
The administration's
announcement comes after months of internal debate over how to respond to
Russian cyber activity that US law enforcement and intelligence agencies have
watched take place for over a year.
In recent months, Obama
administration officials focused on protecting voting machines and preventing
hackers from affecting the balloting. Officials were relieved when the November
8 elections were completed without tampering of votes.
But the damage had already
been done.
US intelligence officials
believe that the Russian efforts were intended to hurt Clinton's campaign. At a
minimum the Russians expected the operation to sow confusion into the US
elections. Then as they saw it having some success, the Russian intelligence
agencies redoubled their efforts by funneling releases of hacked information to
sites such as WikiLeaks and DCLeaks, intelligence officials believe.
Leo Taddeo, a former FBI
senior cyber official and now chief security officer for Cryptzone, says the
hacks were only part of the story.
"Cyber was the tool to
use in the disinformation war," he says. "The overarching campaign is
the information war."
Another US official briefed on
the American government response says Obama administration officials failed to
see what the Russian goal was. "Failure of imagination is a problem that
affects every part of the US government," the official told CNN.
Obama administration officials
have come under attack from Democrats since the election for not sooner taking
public action against the Russians.
Administration officials have
said any delays have been in order to allow intelligence and law enforcement
agencies to do their work. There were also sensitivities about protecting US
classified sources and methods on cyber activities.
And at least one reason for
not taking more public action, as CNN first reported, was that White House
officials didn't want to appear to be favoring the Democratic presidential
nominee's campaign. They assumed Clinton would win the election, and there was
concern that Donald Trump -- already making claims of a rigged election --
would use any Obama administration actions to bolster his claims.
CNN's Daniella Diaz, George
Kazarian and Matthew Chance contributed to this report.
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