US President Barrack Obama issued sanctions to the Russian government, including the expulsion of Russia's 35 intelligence operatives on the US soil in relation to the hacking incident that affected the results of the 2016 US Presidential Elections.
Obama issued an executive order to several US government agencies giving them additional authority for responding cyber-attacks that are perpetrated by Russia that undermine the results of US election by breaching into the computer system of various US institutions.
Covered in the sanction orders are nine entities including the GRU and the FSB, two Russian intelligence services, four individual officers of the GRU, and three companies that provided support to the GRU cyber operations. The US State Department was also directed to shut down two Russian compounds in Maryland and New York used by Russian personnel for intelligence-related purposes. The US government has also declared 35 Russian intelligence officers as "persona non grata".
Obama also pointed out that the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are also releasing declassified technical information on Russian civilian and military intelligence service cyber activity to help network defenders in the United States and abroad identify, detect, and disrupt Russia's global campaign of malicious cyber activities.
"These actions follow repeated private and public warnings that we have issued to the Russian government, and are a necessary and appropriate response to efforts to harm U.S. interests in violation of established international norms of behavior," said Obama in a statement released by The White House.
