Russian Embassy just responded to U.S. sanctions with a meme. Really.

Russia's online retort includes a duck.
 By 
Sasha Lekach
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

After President Barack Obama announced sanctions against Russia Thursday in retaliation for tampering with the U.S. presidential election, the Russian Embassy in London shot back.

In a tweet Thursday afternoon, the embassy's UK Twitter account (which is verified as the official account) posted a photo of a duckling with the word "Lame" over it, in a blatant reference to Obama as he nears the end of his "lame duck" period in office after almost eight years as president.

The tweet called Obama's decision to eject 35 Russian intelligence operatives and impose sanctions on two Russian intelligence services "Cold War deja vu." The FBI and Department of Homeland Security accused Russia of cyberattacks on a "U.S. political party" during the election in a report Thursday.

The embassy's tweet also called the Obama administration "hapless." Sounds like Russia can't wait for Donald Trump to take office -- especially after that joint report accused Russia of hacking into what is presumably the Democratic National Committee.

Two separate hacks over the past year into the political party led to leaked emails, stolen files and other security information. Thursday's report comes after the U.S. accused Russia of a DNC campaign hack in October. This is a formal accusation with all the evidence clearly laid out that Russia meddled with the election and possibly affected its outcome.

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Sasha Lekach

Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.

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