(RightWing.org) – The Treasury Department has announced a new list of sanctions against Russian organizations and individuals. The Kremlin quickly hit back, imposing its own sanctions on hundreds of Americans. The interesting thing is many of those targeted are enemies of former president Donald Trump. Under the circumstances, this is the sort of support he could do without.
On May 19, the Treasury Department said it had sanctioned 22 Russians and 104 entities that are trying to evade existing sanctions against the country. In retaliation, Russia announced sanctions on around 500 Americans who will be banned from traveling to Russia or doing business in the country.
What’s unusual is that none of the targeted Americans — who include New York Attorney General Letitia James, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) and Capitol police officer Michael Byrd — have anything to do with US policy towards Russia. What many of them do have in common is they’ve crossed swords with Trump.
Liberal media, including the New York Times, quickly jumped on this; journalist Peter Baker claimed Russian leader Vladimir Putin is “adopting [Trump’s enemies] as his own” and said the only reason these people could have attracted Russian attention is through being criticized by Trump. That’s not actually correct — there are Trump allies on the list, too, including Senator JD Vance (R-OH), plus people it seems likely Russia would have heard of anyway, like Barack Obama — but it’s true that many of the former president’s opponents and critics have been targeted. A statement from Russia’s foreign ministry also directly mentioned the “persecution of dissidents” over the January 6 riot.
From Trump’s point of view, this is not great news. Although the fake Russia collusion allegations have been discredited, this gives Liberals another chance to try to link him to the Putin regime. Of course, it’s possible that is exactly what Russia, fearing Trump’s re-election, is trying to do.
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