Putin’s minions have problem? U.S. releases ‘Kremlin’ list of Russian oligarchs and officials
The U.S. treasury presented the document to the Congress.
The U.S. identified 96 of Russia’s richest people as ‘oligarchs’ and 114 top government figures in lists mandated under last year’s sanctions law, adding pressure over alleged Kremlin interference in the 2016 presidential vote, Bloomberg reports.
Vladimir Putin is not mentioned in the document.
However, the report affects most of Russia’s leadership – Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and other deputies, all Russian ministers, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
The Treasury also listed heads of leading state-owned companies – Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, Chairman of the Executive Board of the largest Russian bank Sberbank German Gref as well as Information security systems developer Evgeny Kaspersky, whom the West suspects of cooperation with Russian special services.
Being included in the report does not mean being sanctioned by the United States, but it is not ruled out that Washington may later introduce restrictive measures against them.
In the summer of 2017, the U.S. Senate adopted by an overwhelming majority of 98 against 2 votes a bill toughening the US’ unilateral sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea. Previously, the bill won the majority of votes in the House of Representatives. President Donald Trump signed the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act which provided for the preparation of the report above.
