The image of Russian revolutionary Vladmir Lenin graces
"This is a series of actions (we're taking against Russia)", said the official.
Also on Thursday, the White House announced new sanctions on Russian Federation related to interference in the 2016 USA presidential election.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, asked if Russian Federation is a friend or foe, told reporters, "Russia is going to have to make that determination". We call on Russian Federation to live up to its responsibilities as a member of the U.N. Security Council to uphold worldwide peace and security. The sanctions also hit the IRA itself and two linked companies, Concord Management and Consulting and Concord Catering.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, who ran the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, has been targeted by the USA sanctions along with 12 of the agency's employees. Also sanctioned were five Russian companies, including the Internet Research Agency, which is accused of orchestrating a mass online disinformation campaign to affect the USA presidential election result. He says he has no business in the US, and he adds he won't eat at McDonald's in response to the penalties.
"The recent use of a military-grade nerve agent in an attempt to murder two United Kingdom citizens further demonstrate the reckless and conduct of its government", a senior U.S. national security official said on Thursday.
Russia's deputy foreign minister said his government has begun to prepare a response to the sanctions. But he says Russian Federation has "begun preparing retaliatory measures".
Congressional Democrats welcomed the sanctions but criticized the Trump administration for not moving quicker or going far enough.
Many targets of Thursday's actions were already on US sanctions lists.
According to a United States technical advisory, the hacking attempts date back to at least since March 2016, and successfully infiltrated energy sector networks from small commercial facilities via spearphishing emails, which installed malware on victims' computers.
The department's U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team says the operation targeted smaller American commercial facilities.
It also was in response to what officials said was a wide range of "malicious cyberactivity", including Russian efforts to hack into the USA energy grid and other parts of the US infrastructure, including dams. The Treasury Department is using that law to target the Russian Federal Security Service, or FSB; the Main Intelligence Directorate, of GRU; and six GRU officials.
On Thursday, one Russian lawmaker suggested the attack could have been staged by anyone - even the USA, or a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation partner. And, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman and close confidant of President Vladimir Putin. "A classic bully", the official said of Putin. USA companies, including shipping giant FedEx and the pharmaceutical firm Merck, also were affected, losing hundreds of millions of dollars in earnings.
Match official removed for helping England ahead of Ireland match
I 'm happy to obviously answer questions on a fantastic game that's coming up but I think the other matter is dead. Ireland coach Joe Schmidt played down Jones' remarks, saying they were "not directly relevant to us".
SwiftKey 7.0 adds stickers, location sharing, new languages, and more
The hub on the keyboard is now replaced with a new Toolbar that gives access to GIFs, location features, and calendar features. Stickers can also be saved to a personal collection and can found at a later point by pressing on the pin icon in the Toolbar.
N. Korean foreign minister arrives in Sweden for talks
The Swedish ministry said a statement summarising the talks will be made available on Friday. It did not mention engagement with the United States.
The officials briefed reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive national security information.
The Trump administration Thursday announced a new set of punitive sanctions against Russian Federation, targeting 19 individuals and five organizations, including the country's two main intelligence agencies, the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the successor to the KGB, and the GRU, the intelligence arm of Russia's military.
US President Donald Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their bilateral meeting at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany on July 7, 2017. Both Germany and France have chafed at previous sanctions imposed by the United States against Moscow, viewing them as a deliberate threat to their economic ties with Russian Federation aimed at boosting U.S. interests in Europe, particularly in terms of American energy conglomerates. Trump himself has been skeptical of the allegations.
The sanctions stand in contrast to President Donald Trump's personal reluctance to blame the Kremlin for its interference in the 2016 presidential race despite the USA intelligence community's conclusion that Moscow did so.
"Specifically, the FSB has utilized its cyber tools to target Russian journalists and politicians critical of the Russian government; Russian citizens and government officials; former officials from countries bordering Russia; and U.S. government officials, including cyber security, diplomatic, military, and White House personnel".
The Treasury Department aimed the sanctions at 19 Russian individuals and five groups.
Treasury identified GRU and Russia's military as interfering in the 2016 election and launching the NotPetya ransomeware attack that wreaked havoc past year across Europe and the U.S.
The Trump administration announced sanctions on Russian five institutions and 19 individuals as a retaliation for interference in the 2016 elections; the announcement also references an attempt to penetrate the United States energy grid.
The sanctions announcement came shortly after the release of a joint statement from the U.S., the U.K., Germany, and France on Thursday morning in which the USA said it shared British assessments "that there is no plausible alternative explanation" to the military-grade nerve agent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, adding that "Russia's fa