OFAC Designates Russian Operatives Over Malign Activities

The U.S. Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") designated numerous Russian operatives for interfering in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, cyber-hacking the World Anti-Doping Agency and other malign activities.

The designations, made pursuant to the Countering America's Adversaries through Sanctions Act, include a former officer of Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate ("GRU") for acting on behalf of sanctioned energy sector oligarch Oleg Deripaska; entities and individuals related to "Project Lakhta," a Russian effort to interfere in elections worldwide; nine additional members of the GRU for cyber-hacking into U.S. elections; four members of the GRU for cyber-hacking into the World Anti-Doping Agency, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and other international nonpolitical organizations; and two GRU officers for their roles in a nerve agent attack in England in March 2018. OFAC noted that, to date, the Trump