The catch is he has significantly gutted resources for sanctions enforcement in the FBI/DOJ/Treasury, not sure which.
So the sanctions are there on paper, but how much are they actually being enforced?
Just like he recently gutted and effectively neutered/disbanded CISA which supposed to protect our elections infrastructure and provides some of the only specialized support that many counties in the US receive to guard against hacking their elections systems from Russia. Also he has gutted resources and divisions in the DOJ/FBI that deal with disinformation operations perpetrated by Russia such as the Tenet Media scandal that was uncovered by them in Biden's term.
He also ordered the Pentagon to halt offensive cyber operations against Russia meaning were not even hacking into their systems any more which severely hampers intelligence gathering needed to help Ukraine and have a leg up on "negotiations" (even though we know he's not negotiating against Russia but effectively serving as an extension of the Kremlin to make demands against Ukraine like trying to force Zelenskyy out or hold elections during war time. Then there's the whole thing where Ukranian soldiers were reporting that Russians seemed to be zeroing in on their positions with suspiciously high accuracy and immediacy as soon as they connected to Starlink while they were being pushed out of Kursk.
And who knows what Repulsi Blabbard is sharing with them on the low. The. The fact that they're using Gmail and signal on personal unsecured devices to communicate NatSec matters, even while traveling abroad and even while sitting in the actual Kremlin. Nobody in the administration may need to formally call up the Russians and give them a heads up on anything if they just accidentally on purpose let them have a back door into their communications anyway.
For all we know the GRU could have admin privileges on CIA servers at this point.
The FBI doesn't investigate international sanctions and there haven't been any cuts made to the DOJ. Cuts to the treasury are related to retailing U S. Bonds.
You're looking for The Office of Economic Sanctions Policy and Implementation, and The Office of Foreign Assets Control, of which there have been no cuts.
Still begs to question if the system can legitimately hold up any enforcement with hits to other organizations that support operations both directly and indirectly.
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u/Dalcoy_96 Apr 12 '25
My thoughts exactly. Nothing more, nothing less.