U.S. eases restrictions on cyber-security sales to Russian spy agency

The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday eased economic sanctions on Russia, allowing some cyber-security transactions with the Russian Federal Security Service accused of meddling in the U.S. electoral process.

Some Russian officials applauded the move as signaling a thaw in relations with Washington. But several members of Congress decried the move as pandering to Russia and its hacking attempts. The Trump administration, meanwhile, denied any easing of sanctions, describing the changes as routine tweaking of complicated policy.

The move by Treasury makes changes to sanctions initially imposed by President Obama in April 2015 and strengthened again in December, in reaction to alleged "malicious cyber-enabled activities" by Russia's security service, known as the FSB, in the U.S. electoral process.

The changes by the Office of Foreign Assets Control cover "all transactions and activities" involving the FSB, the successor to the KGB, that were banned by Obama's executive orders. It specifically eases the ban on sales of information technology products to Russia.

President Trump disputed the notion that the modifications of earlier sanctions amounted to an easing of sanctions. "I'm not easing ... anything," he told reporters.

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White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the changes do not mark a policy shift, describing them as "a regular course of action" that Treasury takes to address unintended consequences of sanctions.

In the latest case, some U.S. companies had expressed concern that the sanctions would limit their ability to sell electronics to Russia. The FSB has control over imports to Russia of devices with encryption technology.

While the White House tamped down speculation of a policy change, former FSB director Nikolai Kovalyov, a member of the State Duma, saw the move as a sign of improving relations between Moscow and Washington.

"This shows that actual joint work on establishing an anti-terrorism coalition is about to begin," Kovalyov told Russia's TASS news agency.

"Without easing these sanctions it would have been impossible to take the next step," he added.

In Washington, where Republican Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham have called for strengthening, not easing of sanctions on Moscow, the move by Treasury was met with dismay among some members of Congress.

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., ranking member of a House CIA subcommittee, accused the Trump administration of “rewarding” the FSB for tampering with the U.S. elections.

“This is the same group (FSB) that, just a month ago, our intelligence community determined was responsible for the attack on our democracy,” Swalwell told USA TODAY. “We just made it easier for the same group to import into Russia the tools they could use to hack us or our allies again.”

Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said the Trump administration appeared to be going to "extreme lengths" to put Russian interests above the United States. "Allowing U.S. companies to do business with the Russian intelligence service (FSB) rewards Russia for its nefarious behavior and emboldens Putin to act out in the future," he said.

The Trump administration's starts and fits over other policies, such as the recent travel ban, complicated efforts to assess the meaning of the move by Treasury.

In the past, sanctions have been modified, for example, when the Obama administration eased sanctions on Iran in its landmark 2015 nuclear deal because the language of the act inadvertently included a ban on the sale of medical devices using nuclear medicine.

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to make a statement on the decision, TASS reported.

"First we need to understand what it is all about," Peskov said, according to TASS. "If we turn to the rocket engines matter, we will see that our U.S. counterparts never impose sanctions that could damage their own interests."

Contributing: Donovan Slack in Washington; John Bacon in McLean, Va.; the Associated Press