The US Sanctions Targeted Crypto Addresses of Russian hackers

The Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Treasury Department today announced the inclusion in the sanctions lists of three Russians, called employees of the Internet Research Agency, also referred to in the press as the "troll factory." They are accused of interfering in the US presidential elections. In addition, the addresses attributed to the organization in the Bitcoin, Litecoin, Zcash, Dash and Ethereum blockchains fell under financial sanctions.

The statement declared that the Ministry of Finance has named three employees of the Internet Research Agency to be included in the sanctions lists for participating in the activities of the Internet Research Agency, which was also on the sanctions lists. Russian citizens Artem Lifshits, Anton Andreyev and Darya Aslanova, employees of the Internet Research Agency, supported his cryptocurrency accounts. The Internet Research Agency uses cryptocurrencies to fund activities in order to facilitate its ongoing malicious operations to influence the world.

Hacking and illegal activity are becoming more rampant as technology advances. Scams as well as interfering in domestic politics is an act of undermining democratic principles. It is quite visible in Forex trading as well, where dishonest brokers are trying to deceive clients. Most recently ForexTradingBonus published articles about such brokers and their illegal activity.

In 2018, the US authorities have already stated that the structure has accounts on several unnamed cryptocurrency exchanges, which were allegedly registered with forged documents. Also in the decision to expand the sanctions lists, Ukrainian politician Andriy Derkach is mentioned, who is accused of “trying to influence the 2020 US presidential elections”.

Earlier it became known that several cryptocurrency addresses attributed to Russian companies were excluded from the sanctions lists.

Other sanctions also coming

Democratic senators have also proposed new sanctions against Russia's connection with Afghanistan. They submitted a bill to the US Senate — according to a press release on the website of Senator Robert Menendez, one of the initiators and authors of the document.

The authors of the document claim that it became known about a certain "program" of Russia to pay rewards to rebels associated with the Afghan Taliban movement (recognized as terrorist in Russia) for the murder of American soldiers and their allies in Afghanistan. According to the Democrats, the administration of President Donald Trump has not responded to reports about this “program”, so the proposed law obliges Trump to impose sanctions against any Russians, officials and organizations associated with the "program."

To impose sanctions, the presidential administration must determine whether the Russian government has anything to do with payments for the killings of Americans and soldiers from other NATO countries. If this is confirmed, then Trump, according to the bill, must block all assets of the sanctioned persons in the United States and prohibit them from entering the country. The bill includes, among other things, sanctions against Vladimir Putin personally or anyone acting on his behalf, as well as against officials from the Russian government or those associated with defence or intelligence — if they are associated with "payments".

The law also proposes to increase resources to combat the “Russian threat and malevolent influence” in South and Central Asia. The document provides for the allocation of $50 million each year to reward people who provide information about Russian payments for attacks on Americans and $30 million each year to counter Russia in the region.

Senator Menendez declared that as they continue to learn how far President Trump can go to play down Putin's aggression against the country, they are once again forced to demand what should be common sense: the US government will always defend military personnel against any other parties that seek to harm them. According to him, Trump's "deference" towards Putin is forcing the Senate to engage more actively in foreign policy, in particular sanctions.

The Democratic bill is unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled Senate. But the document will increase pressure on Trump, whom critics have already accused of disrespecting the army, the agency said. Trump himself and his entourage disagree with this and indicate, among other things, an increase in military budgets during his presidency.

Image courtesy of National Post