President Barack Obama has imposed sanctions on Russian officials and intelligence services in retaliation for Russia's interference in the U.S. presidential election by hacking American political sites and email accounts.
The State Department also has kicked out 35 Russian diplomats from its embassy in Washington and consulate in San Francisco, giving them and their families 72 hours to leave the U.S. The diplomats were declared persona non grata for acting in a "manner inconsistent with their diplomatic status."
Obama said Russians will no longer have access to two Russian government-owned compounds in the United States, in Maryland and in New York.
Russian officials have denied the Obama administration's accusation that the Russian government was trying to influence the U.S. presidential election.
U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia's goal was to help Donald Trump win -- an assessment Trump has dismissed as ridiculous.
Obama, announcing the retaliation for election hacking, said "all Americans should be alarmed by Russia's actions."
House Speaker Paul Ryan says the Obama administration's new sanctions against Russia are long overdue after eight years of "failed policy" with Russia.
The Wisconsin Republican said in a statement Thursday that "Russia does not share America's interests" and has consistently sought to undermine U.S. values while "sowing dangerous instability around the world."
Ryan says the sanctions announced Thursday were overdue, but were "an appropriate way to end eight years of failed policy with Russia."
He said Russia's interference in U.S. elections showed the Obama administration's "ineffective foreign policy that has left America weaker in the eyes of the world."
Russia's reaction
Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman says Moscow regrets new U.S. sanctions and will consider retaliatory measures.
Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday that the measures signal Obama's "unpredictable" and "aggressive foreign policy."
Peskov says "Such steps of the U.S. administration that has three weeks left to work are aimed at two things: to further harm Russian-American ties, which are at a low point as it is, as well as, obviously, deal a blow on the foreign policy plans of the incoming administration of the president-elect."
The foreign affairs committee chairman of the Russian parliament's upper chamber says Russia will see what President-elect Donald Trump has to say about U.S. sanctions announced on Thursday before stating retaliatory measures of its own.
Konstantin Kosachev tells the Interfax news agency that Russia "needs to consider the circumstances of the transition period and a possible reaction of the U.S. president-elect."
Russia's embassy in the UK tweeted that Obama's actions were "Cold War deja vu" described the administration as "hapless."
President Obama expels 35 ?? diplomats in Cold War deja vu. As everybody, incl ?? people, will be glad to see the last of this hapless Adm. pic.twitter.com/mleqA16H8D
— Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) December 29, 2016
Peskov said Putin has yet to study what the new sanctions involve and work out what retaliatory steps could be.
Trump's reaction
President-elect Donald Trump is responding to the Obama administration's decision to impose new sanctions on Russian officials and intelligence services by insisting it is "time for our country to move on to bigger and better things."
But he says he'll meet with U.S. intelligence officials next week "in order to be updated on the facts of this situation."
The Obama administration announced Thursday it would impose new sanctions in retaliation for Russia's efforts to interfere with the U.S. presidential election by hacking American political sites and email accounts.
Russian officials have denied the Obama administration's accusations. Trump has expressed skepticism about the alleged interference.
