Story highlights Frida Ghitis: Obama has imposed sanctions on Russia for meddling in US election; onus is now on Trump to enforce them

She says Trump's cavalier dismissal of Russia's upending of democracy, defense of Putin will anger his party, alarm Americans

Frida Ghitis is a world affairs columnist for The Miami Herald and World Politics Review, and a former CNN producer and correspondent. The views expressed in this commentary are her own.

(CNN) President Barack Obama, at long, long last, responded forcefully to Russia's unprecedented interference in America's democratic process. We can all wonder what might have happened if he had acted sooner, but that question no longer matters.

The question now is what President-elect Donald Trump will do when he takes office in less than a month.

After all, Trump's acquiescent attitude towards anything having to do with Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, is so baffling, so dismissive of American institutions and arguably of the country's interests, that it has become the most corrosive point of contention between Trump and members of his own party.

On Thursday, Obama issued an executive order that, among other things, expels 35 Russian intelligence operatives and shuts down two Russian compounds in the US. The text of the executive order describes the strong sanctions as "steps to deal with the national emergency with respect to significant malicious cyber-enabled activities ... to undermine democratic processes and institutions."

US security agencies have been in agreement that Russian-backed hackers deliberately stole emails from the Democratic National Committee and from Hillary Clinton's campaign chief John Podesta, then moved to have the private emails made public in an effort to help Trump, Putin's favored candidate, win the election.