MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin admonished the United States on Friday for trying to punish Russia but said his country will not immediately retaliate and instead will wait for a new U.S. approach by Donald Trump. The president-elect praised Putin's move and called him "very smart."
Putin said no U.S. diplomats will be ousted in retaliation for President Barack Obama's decision to impose sanctions and expel Russian diplomats over allegations of Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election. The Russian leader said he reserves the right to hit back in the future, but suggested that it will be unnecessary because he expects to work with Trump's administration to improve U.S.-Russia ties.
Still, Putin called Obama's move a "provocation aimed at further undermining Russian-American relations" less than a month before Trump takes office. In addition to sanctions targeting Russian spy agencies, the U.S. expelled 35 Russian diplomats from the U.S. and said they were spies.
"The Russian diplomats returning home will spend the New Year holidays with their relatives and dear ones," Putin said in a statement published on the Kremlin website. "We will not create problems for U.S. diplomats. We will not expel anybody."
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He added: "Moreover, I am inviting all children of U.S. diplomats accredited in Russia to the New Year and Christmas parties at the Kremlin."
New Year's Eve has been the main holiday in Russia since Soviet times. Russians celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7.
Trump's reaction came via Twitter. "Great move on delay (by V. Putin)," Trump tweeted. "I always knew he was very smart!" He pinned the tweet to the top of his Twitter page.
Putin's statement came hours after Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had suggested that Russia oust 31 American diplomats.
"Of course, we cannot leave such mischievous tricks without a response," he said. "Reciprocity is the law of diplomacy and of international relations."
Russia has denied accusations by Obama and the U.S. intelligence community that it sponsored hackers to steal and then leak sensitive information about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to sway the election in favor of Trump. Putin on Friday accused the United States of engaging in "irresponsible 'kitchen' diplomacy" and said Russia will retain its "right to retaliate."
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Trump remained relatively quiet as the sanctions were announced Thursday, saying only that it was "time for our country to move on to bigger and better things" and promised that he would meet with intelligence leaders next week to get more details.
On Friday, Trump's incoming chief of staff, Reince Priebus, rushed to clarify that Trump's comments were not an indication that the new administration would not take hacking allegations seriously.
"We agree that foreign governments shouldn't be hacking American institutions, period," Priebus told Fox News. "So it's not like we condone the hacking of institutions and entities and businesses in America, of course not."
Sanction specifics
Obama's sanctions targeted the GRU and FSB, the Russian intelligence agencies that the U.S. said were involved in the hacking attacks. In an elaborately coordinated response by at least five federal agencies, the Obama administration also sought to expose Russia's cybertactics with a detailed technical report and hinted that it might still launch a covert counterattack.
"All Americans should be alarmed by Russia's actions," said Obama, who was vacationing in Hawaii.
The sanctions could easily be dialed back by Trump, who has insisted that Obama and Democrats are merely attempting to delegitimize his election.
As part of the punishment leveled against Russia, the U.S. kicked out the 35 Russian diplomats in response to Russia's harassment of U.S. diplomats. Russian recreational compounds in New York and Maryland that U.S. officials said were being used for intelligence were also shut down.
It was the strongest action the Obama administration has taken in response to a cyberattack, and it was more comprehensive than last year's sanctions on North Korea after the 2014 hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment. The new penalties add to existing U.S. sanctions over Russia's annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Senior Obama administration officials said that even with the penalties, the U.S. had reason to believethat Russia would hack other nations' elections and might well try to hack American elections in 2018 or 2020. The officials briefed reporters on a conference call on condition of anonymity.
Though the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued a joint report on "Russian malicious cyber activity" the government still has not released a broader report that Obama has promised details Russia's efforts to interfere with U.S. elections.
The report has been eagerly anticipated by those hoping to make it politically untenable for Trump to continue questioning whether Russia was really involved in the hacking.
'Death throes'
U.S. relations with Russia have suffered during Obama's presidency as he and Putin tussled over Ukraine, National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden and Russia's support for Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said earlier Friday that Washington has become immersed in "anti-Russian death throes."
Medvedev, who focused on improving U.S.-Russia ties when he was president from 2008-12, called the latest diplomatic spat "sad" in a Twitter post.
"It is regrettable that the Obama administration, which started out by restoring our ties, is ending its term in an anti-Russia agony. RIP," he tweeted in English.
Maria Zakharova, a Russian foreign ministry spokesman, took to Facebook to call the Obama administration "a group of foreign policy losers, angry and ignorant."
Zakharova also hit back at claims that authorities were planning to close an American school in Moscow.
"US officials 'anonymously informed' their media that Russia closed the Anglo-American School in Moscow as a retaliatory measure," she wrote in a Facebook post, which was later translated by the Russian state news agency Tass. "That's a lie. Apparently, the White House has completely lost its senses and began inventing sanctions against its own children."
CNN was one of the first news organizations to report the closure of the school, which is popular with the children of Western diplomats.
Zakharova specifically criticized CNN for spreading "false information."
"You should not write that 'Moscow denied .... Or Moscow will not...' " Zakharova continued. "Write as it is: 'The CNN TV channel and other Western media have again spread false information citing official American sources.'"
A statement on the Anglo-American School's Facebook page says only that it "is planning to open as scheduled following the New Year break."
Information for this article was contributed by Josh Lederman, Nataliya Vasilyeva, Tami Abdollah, Jill Colvin and Jim Heintz of The Associated Press; by Andrew Roth, Robert Costa and Adam Taylor of The Washington Post; and by Neil MacFarquhar and Ivan Nechepurenko of The New York Times.
A Section on 12/31/2016