Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Trump administration has altered sanctions against a Russian agency that the US intelligence community believes hacked US political groups on Putin’s orders.
A Russian agency sanctioned for hacking US political groups won’t be quite so restricted now.
The sanctions, issued by then-President Barack Obama in December , barred US businesses from dealing with the Russian Federal Security Service, but it turns out the US has at least one reason to keep doing business with the agency — getting permission to export electronics and other information technology to Russia.
On Thursday, the US Department of the Treasury issued a license ( PDF ) letting US exporters obtain permits from the Russian Federal Security Service for “the importation, distribution, or use of information technology products in the Russian Federation. ”
The change to the sanctions set off disagreement in Washington over whether President Donald Trump was going easy on Russia.
