What did Washington do to Moscow on 15 April 2021?

What did the United States actually do to Russia on 15 April 2021? It announced a package of retaliatory measures over the 2020 federal government data breach, interference in the 2020 US elections, and the occupation of and human rights abuses in Crimea.

The measures

Washington banned trade in bonds newly issued by Russia's Central Bank, National Wealth Fund and Ministry of Finance. It formally named the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service as responsible for the data breach, blacklisted 32 Russian entities and individuals, and expelled ten Russian diplomats.

The breach itself, as later described, was a major cyberattack suspected to have been carried out by a group backed by the Russian government. It penetrated thousands of organisations worldwide, including multiple parts of the US federal government, and was reported to be among the worst cyber-espionage incidents the country had suffered.

Moscow's response

Russia denied the allegations. Its Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the US ambassador to tell him that a series of retaliatory measures would follow soon. A ministry spokesperson also said that a potential summit between the two countries' leaders might not take place.

Elsewhere in the region

On the same theme of the day's news in Ukraine, two days earlier, on 13 April 2021, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov had said that Ukraine had reached the peak of its third wave of coronavirus.

The measures announced on 15 April 2021 cited Crimea alongside the cyber and election allegations, placing the occupied peninsula among the stated grounds for the US action.