New US sanctions put in place by former President Barack Obama last December — part of a broad suite of actions taken in response to Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election — made it a crime for American companies to have any business relationship with Russia’s FSB, or Federal Security Service.
However, US technology firms were quietly lobbying the government to soften a ban on dealing with the Russian spy agency, people with direct knowledge of the effort told Reuters.
The industry groups, which included Cisco and Microsoft, did not argue against the intent of the sanction but asked for a narrow exception that would allow them to continue to seek regulatory approvals from the FSB while still keeping in place the broader ban on doing business with the spy agency.
Despite hacking charges, US tech industry fought to keep ties to Russia spy serviceRead More
