The Treasury Department relaxed some sanctions on Russia. | Getty Treasury tweaks Russia sanctions for tech products

The Treasury Department has tweaked sanctions the Obama administration placed on a Russian spy agency in retaliation for its alleged cyberattacks.

The move immediately led to speculation that the Trump administration had significantly eroded the Russian penalties, but experts and former officials quickly cautioned that Treasury was mostly fixing a technical glitch that may have created unintended consequence for American exporters.


Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control on Thursday issued a “general license” that appears to authorize U.S. companies to continue requesting licenses from Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB, to sell American technology products in the country.

The FSB was one of several individuals and entities former President Barack Obama hit with penalties over the suspected cyber assault that destabilized the Democratic Party and roiled Hillary Clinton's campaign.

But experts explained the FSB is also the agency that rubber stamps the import of foreign technology products, meaning Obama's sanctions may have forbid American tech firms from selling their products in all of Russia.

Eric Lorber, a sanctions expert at the Financial Integrity Network consulting firm, explained that the new license corrects what was "very likely an unintended consequence."

Once FSB was sanctioned, he said in a statement shared on Twitter, "securing these licenses/permission [from the FSB] became prohibited, and U.S. exporters could no longer sell their goods to Russia."

Timothy Edgar, a former Obama administration national security staffer, agreed with Lorber's assessment.

"The notice eases restrictions on the export of 'information technology products' to Russia that require licenses by the FSB," he told POLITICO via email. "It does not appear to allow provision of such products directly to the FSB."

Treasury has a standing authority to carve out exceptions to sanctions.

The White House echoed this narrative during a press conference Thursday afternoon. Press secretary Sean Spicer described Treasury's directive as "a regular course of action" that didn't represent any shift in policy.

“We’re not easing sanctions," Spicer told reporters. "From what I understand, it’s a fairly common practice for the Treasury Department after sanctions are put in place to go back and to look at whether or not there needs to be specific carve-outs for different, you know, either different industries or products and services that need to be going back and forth."

Treasury's actions caused whiplash on Capitol Hill, as some Trump critics pounced on the news, while others downplayed the story.

"Easing these sanctions allows Russia to sharpen its knives and import tools from the United States to hack us again," said Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House subpanel overseeing the CIA, in a statement.

Swalwell and his Democratic colleagues have joined with hawkish Republicans to press for a special committee or independent commission to study the extent of Russia's election-year meddling.

But some of those hard-line Republicans, like Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), acknowledged that the Treasury directive was "just a technical fix."

In fact, according to a former official and news reports, the move was likely planned during the Obama administration.

Treasury's top sanctions expert, acting undersecretary Adam Szubin, is also currently leading Treasury until the Senate confirms Trump's pick to head the department, Steven Mnunchin.

At his confirmation hearing, Mnunchin vowed to enforce all Russian sanctions "100 percent."

Colin Wilhelm and Isaac Arnsdorf contributed to this report.