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They didn't because it is stupid and pointless to "indict" foreign intelligence operatives living in their own country for doing their job. It is stupid and pointless for us to do it and it would have been stupid and pointless for any other countries to do it.
We are so far the only ones silly enough to run a piece of political theater like this.
Of course he's a relevant actor. He's the head of the FSB. His job is to spy on the United States. Should we "indict" him and would it be meaningful/sensible/NOT stupid?
Whataboutism says what?
If he’s being investigated for a crime, and there’s enough evidence to prove he’s guilty, then sure, why wouldn’t they indict him?
I always find it humorous when people or countries want to “punish” the richest most powerful and top destination country on earth.
America is shaking in its boots.
What happened to Rome again? The world is going to pass us by with that mentality (“we’re always going to be the strongest and best, forever, because!”).
Actually, it never was, until the Democrat left lost the first post-Obama election, and determined to try to remove that duly elected president from office, by any and every means they could think of.
If the Russians were to correctly identify 12 CIA officers who had committed cyberwarfare crimes against Russia, and Putin agreed to extradite the 12 miltary officers indicted by the Mueller probe - if we would extradite the 12 CIA officers identified and indicted by the Russians to Russia - should we agree?
Clearly the problem here is that these cyberwarfare actions - instigated by us, the Russians, the Chinese, and many other countries - are clearly acts of national aggression, which need to be responded to at the national level and not at the individual level. What these actions are not are the acts of rogue individuals, which is what pursuing indictments against these individuals implies.
Cyberwarfare - carried out by nation-states against other nation-states - is a HUGE problem, which needs to be addressed at the nation to nation level. It is not something that can be adressed or resolved by trying to sanction individual members of adversarial nation's cyberwarfare related intelligence services.
Lastly, anyone on television or elsewhere who is advocating the extradition of these Russian military officers is apparently ignorant of these issues and they should be regarded as the ignoramouses that these people clearly are.
I am not a Democrat nor am I a Republican, I'm a registered independent and am a moderate leaning liberal. The issue is why should we let another country dig and probe into our elections whether we talk campaigns or the vote counting machines? I would be wanting justice if even godforbid Trump and the RNC was hacked rather than Hillary and the DNC to be honest and this is despite my own dislike of Trump as a human being and his policy stances.
We need to take election meddling seriously and we need to pull out of influencing elections ourselves.
What is often left out of the discussion about the Russian meddling in US elections is that to some degree the US State Department under Clinton was meddling in elections in the Ukraine and Russia itself. This is personal for Putin.
What a load. What evidence has Russia provided to convince you? Their word?
Putin publicly favored and campaigned for Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine's 2004 elections even going so far as to participate in a televised town hall event where he advocated for Yanukovych just 3 days before the vote. Russia broadcast pro-Yanukovych propaganda into Ukraine and slandered his opponent. The Kremlin sent political consultants Gleb Pavlovskii and Sergei Markov, among others, to run the Yanukovych campaign. The overseer of that campaign was none other than Medvedev. Gazprom-controlled RosUkrEnergo funneled $200 Million in campaign donations to Yanukovych. Over 400 polling stations were opened on Russian territory where "expatriates" could vote in Ukraine's elections.
Considering your stance, I've a few questions:
What moral righteousness does Moscow possess to justify such "retaliation"?
How many election interferences should Americans endure before we atone for those past actions?
Why is Russia interfering in countries that most certainly haven't transgressed Russia?
What prevents other countries from following Russia's lead and also meddling in our elections?
Our government overthrew the democratically-elected Mohammad Mosaddeq in 1953, doesn't that afford Iran the "right" to interfere in our elections given your logic?
Of course he's a relevant actor. He's the head of the FSB. His job is to spy on the United States. Should we "indict" him and would it be meaningful/sensible/NOT stupid?
You seem to have wandered down a tangent.
This is not about spying. This is about Russian using cyberwar strategies to interfere in our elections.
It's not the FSB, the new name for the KGB, which is a civilian agency.
This is about GRU which is the military intelligence service and answers to the Minister of Defense.
I am not a Democrat nor am I a Republican, I'm a registered independent and am a moderate leaning liberal. The issue is why should we let another country dig and probe into our elections whether we talk campaigns or the vote counting machines?
Of course we shouldn't let them. It's the task of our intelligence (well, counter-intelligence) services, including the FBI, to prevent this kind of activity.
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I would be wanting justice if even godforbid Trump and the RNC was hacked rather than Hillary and the DNC to be honest and this is despite my own dislike of Trump as a human being and his policy stances.
I really don't see these for-show-only indictments of people when there is no possibility of ever having them actually show up for a trial as "justice". Do you?
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We need to take election meddling seriously and we need to pull out of influencing elections ourselves.
US intelligence professionals disagree with the second part of your statement. From that NYT article I cited:
“If you ask an intelligence officer, did the Russians break the rules or do something bizarre, the answer is no, not at all,” said Steven L. Hall, who retired in 2015 after 30 years at the C.I.A., where he was the chief of Russian operations. The United States “absolutely” has carried out such election influence operations historically, he said, “and I hope we keep doing it.”
This is not about spying. This is about Russian using cyberwar strategies to interfere in our elections.
Spying is a much more serious crime in the US criminal code than computer hacking. Or interfering in the elections.
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It's not the FSB, the new name for the KGB, which is a civilian agency.
This is about GRU which is the military intelligence service and answers to the Minister of Defense.
Six of one, half dozen of the other. GRU and FSB both are spy agencies. But of you prefer, replace the name in my question above with Igor Sergun, the head of GRU. Surely there are mountains of evidence of his spying on the United States? Should we indict him for espionage?
I really don't understand the rationale. What exactly is the point of indictments with no possibility of trials? Do you really think that's "justice"? Do explain. Or maybe we can have a grand show trial, with no defendants, no defense lawyers, just the prosecution, just to make ourselves look even more ridiculous?
As much as I'm of the opinion that Trey Gowdy is a dim-witted hillbilly hack, I have to give him props for suggesting Trump's first question to Putin at their upcoming meeting should be: "Tell us which airport we can pick up the 25 Russians that tried to interfere with the fundamentals of our democracy".
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