Sanctions Against Russia: Too Little, Too Late?

Posted: December 30th, 2016

By John Sipher

John Sipher worked for the CIA’s clandestine service for 28 years. He is now a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and a co-founder of Spycraft Entertainment. John served multiple overseas tours as Chief of Station and Deputy Chief of Station in Europe, Asia, and in high-threat environments. He is the recipient of CIA’s Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal.

Whether President-elect Donald Trump will keep in place the Obama administration sanctions against Russia for its interference in the U.S. election remains to be seen. Trump has repeatedly scoffed at the Intelligence Community’s conclusion that Russia hacked into the Democratic National Committee in an effort to help his candidacy, but on Thursday said he would meet with the IC to “be updated on the facts.” Russia has indicated it is considering its response to the sanctions that were announced by the White House on Thursday. The Cipher Brief’s Managing Editor Pam Benson spoke to network member John Sipher, a former CIA Senior Intelligence Service Member and Russia expert, about how the likely tit-for-tat might play out.

The Cipher Brief: Are these sanctions sufficient? Are they enough to get Russia’s attention?

“The Cipher Brief has become the most popular outlet for former intelligence officers; no media outlet is even a close second to The Cipher Brief in terms of the number of articles published by formers.” —Sept. 2018, Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 62

Access all of The Cipher Brief’s national security-focused expert insight by becoming a Cipher Brief Subscriber+ Member.

Subscriber+