US President Joe Biden is poised to announce a new round of sanctions against Russia.
They are in response to a massive cyber-attack on America’s federal agencies and interference in last year’s presidential election.
Washington says Russia was behind the so-called Solar Winds hack, which breached the networks of nine US agencies, including the Treasury, and the departments of Energy and Homeland Security.
It also accused the Kremlin of backing influence operations to help Donald Trump in his unsuccessful bid for reelection.
The expected sanctions come just days after Biden asked Vladimir Putin to join him for a presidential summit on Russia’s tensions with Ukraine.
Euronews’ reporter in Washington, Colin Campbell, says the new sanctions are a clear sign that the Biden administration is adopting a very different approach towards Russia than their predecessors.
“With this administration, with Joseph Biden at the helm, he is going to take on a different approach when it comes to Russia,” he said.
“He wants to punish them for what he believes are a series of missteps and intrusions, into the American elections, into cybersecurity breaches, and of course what we know of Alexei Navalny.
“We’re looking at maybe 30 different groups, 12 different individuals. We’re looking at a wide sweeping array of sanctions that could be imposed against Russia. This is very much different than his predecessor would have done.”
Listen to the full interview with Colin Campbell in Washington, DC, by clicking on the media player above.
