The United States on Thursday announced new sanctions on Russian and Iranian intelligence agencies, and several Iranian individuals, for their role in hostage-taking and the “wrongful detention” of American citizens.
U.S. officials said the sanctions — on Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, and on the intelligence arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — would not “set back” efforts to free Americans being held in those countries, including Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter arrested in Russia last month on what Washington says are “bogus” espionage charges. Although it is unusual to impose sanctions on government organizations, both Russian and Iranian agencies are already under sanctions for various activities. The new measures are meant to “change behavior and to incentivize better behavior,” U.S. officials said.
