The US Treasury Department has released a list of prominent Russians with close ties to the Kremlin but has stressed it is “not a sanctions list.”
Released shortly before a midnight deadline, the list includes 114 senior foreign political figures with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and 96 oligarchs, with a net worth of $1 billion or more.
The list includes senior members of the Russian Cabinet, ministers and other senior political leaders, including the leaders of the State Duma and Federation Council, the Treasury Department said in a statement.
It added the list was compiled “based on objective criteria drawn from publically available sources,” and those on it would not be subject to further restrictions.
Russia warned the release of the list could “jeopardize relations” and have “very, very serious consequences.”
“This is another step, which, obviously, leads to further escalation of tensions,” Aleksey Chepa, deputy chairman of the State Duma’s international affairs committee, told official news agency RIA Novosti.
“While it is too early to talk about this, but if the situation escalates further it can lead to this. The American leadership itself does not see the consequences of these actions, they jeopardize relations in the world between countries, and this can have very, very serious consequences.”
No sanctions
Earlier Monday, the Trump administration declined to impose sanctions against companies and foreign countries doing business with blacklisted Russian defense and intelligence entities.
The administration was required by law to name the companies and individuals Monday and possibly sanction them under a 2016 law meant to punish Russia for its interference in the 2016 US election, as well as its human rights violations, annexation of Crimea and ongoing military operations in eastern Ukraine.
A State Department official said that the administration had decided to put foreign governments and private sector entities “on notice … that significant transactions with listed Russian entities will result in sanctions.”
“Sanctions on specific entities or individuals will not need to be imposed because the legislation is, in fact, serving as a deterrent,” the official said.
The agency noted that it also provided an additional classified report to Congress that may have included other individuals not listed in the public portion of the report.
A second classified report outlined the impact of imposing sanctions on Russia’s sovereign debt. The government analyzed entities that were at least 25% owned by the Russian government and had roughly $2 billion or more in revenue in 2016. It did not name any of those entities publicly.
