U.S. To Hit Russia With Sanctions Over 2020 Election Meddling

Russia's President Vladimir Putin personally directed a campaign to reelect Donald Trump but China did nothing to aid President Joe Biden.

Renewed Russia election interference on behalf of Trump was revealed in a report from the U.S. intelligence community made public this week. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released the report confirming Putin either oversaw or at least approved of Russia's meddling.

White House sources said the Biden administration was expected to impose sanctions on Russia by next week in retaliation for presidential election meddling by Russia since 2016.

Contrary to claims by Trump and the Republican Party, China didn't interfere in the election. The office report found no evidence of any direct China meddling aimed at defeating Trump. China "did not deploy interference efforts."

"China sought stability in its relationship with the U.S. and did not view either election outcome as being advantageous enough for China to risk blowback if caught," according to the report.

There was a minority opinion that China "took at least some steps to undermine" Trump's reelection, "primarily through social media and official public statements and media."

"We assess that Russian President (Vladimir) Putin authorized, and a range of Russian government organizations conducted, influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden's candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting former President Trump, undermining public confidence in the electoral process, and exacerbating socio-political divisions in the U.S.," the report said.

The report largely supports previous statements from Trump administration intelligence-community officials who concluded Russia was attempting to interfere in U.S. elections.

The sanctions are also in retaliation for a cyberattack launched by Russia against U.S. software company SolarWinds Corp. and Microsoft Corp. that infiltrated U.S. government networks and allowed Russia to steal classified information.

The report said Russia's election interference was run by two men with close ties to Russian intelligence - Ukrainian parliamentarian Andriy Derkach, who sought to smear Biden and his son Hunter, and Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian intelligence agent who was indicted by a grand jury June 8, 2018, on charges of obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

The report said Kilimnik and Derkach met and gave materials to Trump-linked people to push for formal investigations into the Bidens.