The United States plans to sanction Russian oligarchs this week under a law targeting Moscow for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, The Washington Post and Reuters report with reference to their own sources familiar with the matter.
According to the Washington Post, the United States is expected to target individuals on a list of influential Russian political and business leaders that the Treasury Department released in January. There are 210 persons on the list, including Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and Rosneft Head Igor Sechin.
The sanctions, which two sources said would be announced as early as Thursday, would follow the March 15 U.S. decision to sanction 19 people and five entities, including Russian intelligence services, for cyber attacks stretching back at least two years, Reuters says.
On April 4, CNN reported that a team of former FBI agent Robert Mueller held the interrogation of two Russian oligarchs, who were visiting the United States. They are trying to establish whether Russian businessmen took any part in Donald Trump election campaign.
Last week, the United States expelled 60 Russian spies and diplomats in response to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, the former Russian spy, and his daughter, the largest expulsion of Russians in U.S. history.
