The_Guardian_-_2016-12-29

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US foreign policy
Obama set to hit Russia with further sanctions
before leaving office
Outgoing president to impose sanctions over claims – dismissed by Trump – of hacking and
interference in US election
The Obama administration has had a rocky relationship with Russia. Photograph: Alexei
Druzhinin/AFP/Getty Images
Shaun Walker in Moscow and Lauren Gambino in Washington
Thursday 29 December 2016 02.47 GMT
The outgoing US administration is poised to hit Russia with further sanctions before Barack Obama
leaves office next month, in response to allegations of Russian hacking and interference in the US
electoral process.
The Obama administration has had a rocky relationship with Russia and has already imposed several
rounds of sanctions on Moscow, mainly for its actions in Ukraine.
The US president-elect, Donald Trump, by contrast, has repeatedly praised the Russian president,
Vladimir Putin, and has dismissed claims that Russia intervened to get him elected.
But the prominent Republican senator Lindsey Graham, a hardliner on Russia and a constant critic of
Trump, told a news conference in Latvia that Congress would “investigate the Russian involvement in
our elections”.
“There will be bipartisan sanctions coming that will hit Russia hard, particularly Putin as an
individual,” Graham told CNN. “I would say that 99 of us believe the Russians did this and we’re
going to do something about it.”
A recent report in the Washington Post said the White House was already close to announcing new