U.S. jabs at Russia with more sanctions

The United States sanctioned another group of Russians on Friday in effort to stand up to what the Trump administration called “malign activity” by Russia around the world. The sanctions bar Americans from doing business with and freeze the U.S. assets of seven oligarchs, 17 Russian government officials, a dozen Russian companies, a state-owned arms-dealing company, and a subsidiary bank. President Donald Trump has sanctioned 189 people and entities connected to Russia since he took office. “Nobody has been tougher on Russia than I have,” the president said at a news conference on Tuesday. Trump recently invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet with him. Russia has earned the wrath of Western nations by attempting to influence their elections, supporting President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s civil war, and, most recently, allegedly poisoning an ex-spy in Great Britain with a nerve agent. Former double agent Sergei Skripal and his adult daughter, Yulia, have been recovering from the March 4 attack in Salisbury, England. Yulia Skripal has regained consciousness and is in stable condition, and doctors upgraded her father’s condition from critical to stable on Friday. In response to the poison attack, the United States expelled dozens of Russian diplomats and ordered the Russian Consulate in Seattle to close, and Russia retaliated with similar expulsions of U.S. diplomats from Moscow.