The sanctions are not to punish Russia because Russia has more spies where these come from and we expelled the ones we knew about. So this has little more than an annoyance factor in the scheme of Russian intelligence operations. Plus we’ve known for a very long time who was behind the DNC hack and the “spearphishing” attack on John Podesta. In fact, guys like Tom Cotton have been after the administration for a while to take action on Russian actions.
Obama imposed these sanctions for exactly one reason. He has taken an action unprecedented in American history. He has deliberately set out to delegitimize Donald Trump and to limit the Trump administration’s ability to shape foreign policy in Europe and the Middle East without looking like Trump is a tool of Putin. This has nothing to do with the hack on the DNC or the stellar advice Clinton’s hotshot email crew gave John Podesta and it has everything to do with the CIA “leak” and Obama’s pushing of that story.
These sanctions are just like everything else Obama has done. They are puny, they are ineffectual, they are self-serving, and they are designed to demonize domestic opponents. If nothing else, the man is consistent.
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