On December 28, 2016, as he prepared to leave office, Obama ordered sanctions against the Russian government in a response to cyberattacks on Democratic Party officials in an attempt to undermine the free electoral system.1 These included the expulsion of thirty-five high-level diplomats and declaring them “persona non grata” for “acting in a manner inconsistent with their diplomatic status.” US officials believed that several of these individuals were intelligence operatives. They were given seventy-two hours to leave the country.²

Lieutenant General Igor Korobov, head of the GRU, Russia's main intelligence directorate, was one of the thirty-five people sanctioned. This group also included Evgeniy Bogachev and Alexey Belan, two men from Russia whom the FBI has linked with cybercrimes for years.³ The expelled individuals and their families flew on an exclusive Rossiya Airline plane—the carrier that flies Vladimir Putin and other government officials—from Dulles International Airport and arrived in Moscow in time for New Year's.⁴

Concurrently, the State Department shut down two compounds used by Russian intelligence officials in Maryland and New York. The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI released “declassified technical information on Russian civilian and military intelligence service cyber activity, to help network defenders in the United States and abroad identify, detect, and disrupt Russia's global campaign of malicious cyber activities.”⁵

President Obama released his most explicit statement about the Russian involvement in the elections: “All Americans should be alarmed by Russia's actions. In October [2016], my Administration publicized our assessment that Russia took actions intended to interfere with the U.S. election process. These data theft and disclosure activities could only have been directed by the highest levels of the Russian government. Moreover, our diplomats have experienced an unacceptable level of harassment in Moscow by Russian security services and police over the last year. Such activities have consequences.”6

He explained the executive order that he issued. “[The executive order] provides additional authority for responding to certain cyber activity that seeks to interfere with or undermine our election processes and institutions, or those of our allies or partners.” And President Obama promised further retaliation: “We will continue to take a variety of actions at a time and place of our choosing, some of which will not be publicized. In addition to holding Russia accountable for what it has done, the United States and friends and allies around the world must work together to oppose Russia's efforts to undermine established international norms of behavior, and interfere with democratic governance.”⁷

In a statement at a high-end New Year's Eve party at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Trump issued his own statement, saying that he would have something to reveal. “I also know things that other people don't know, and so they cannot be sure of the situation,” he said, referring to the US intelligence agencies’ assertion that Russia worked to influence the presidential election in his favor.⁸ “I know a lot about hacking,” he added, “and hacking is a very hard thing to prove, so it could be somebody else.”

That was an early indication that the Trump administration would not be willing to respond with a unified message to the Kremlin's interference. President-Elect Trump was already at odds with the intelligence community, who already knew the Russians had interfered and had backed the Trump campaign.

Without a unified message from the beginning of the Trump administration, Russian influence efforts continued through 2017 and 2018. In fact, they seemed to intensify. Putin was essentially doubling down on his operation to break democracy. Kremlin-backed internet trolls continued to poison social media to shape conversations and debate in the United States. In February 2018, after a gunman shot and killed seventeen students and staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Russian trolls injected themselves in the gun control debate. CNET reported that among the most tweeted two words from Russian bots were “gun control” and “school shooting.”9

But unlike what was happening during the 2016 election, more people were becoming hip to the tactics being used. But would that be enough of an antidote to neutralize the poison?