The Great Smoky Mountain Journal
Source: Fox News
Posted: Tuesday, January 01, 2019 02:25 PM
AP: Russia: U.S. Made "Hostile" Act By Publishing Those Involved In Sanctions Law Against Moscow
The long-awaited U.S. publication appears to be mainly a list of people in Russian government, along with 96 "oligarchs" from a Forbes magazine ranking of Russian billionaires.
The list, ordered by Congress in response to Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign, had induced fear among rich Russians that it could lead to U.S. sanctions or being informally blacklisted in the global financial system.
But the U.S. surprised observers by announcing that it had decided not to punish anybody under the new sanctions, at least for now. Some U.S. lawmakers accused President Donald Trump of giving Russia a free pass, fueling further questions about whether the president is unwilling to confront Moscow.
Putin on Tuesday referred to the list as a "hostile step" — but said Moscow does not want to make the situation even worse.
"We were waiting for this list to come out, and I'm not going to hide it: we were going to take steps in response, and, mind you, serious steps, that could push our relations to the nadir. But we're going to refrain from taking these steps for now," Putin said.
The Russian president said he does not expect the publication to have any impact but expressed dismay at the scope of the officials and business people listed.
"Ordinary Russian citizens, employees and entire industries are behind each of those people and companies, so all 146 million people have essentially been put on this list," Putin said at a campaign event in Moscow. "What is the point of this? I don't understand."
Russia hawks in Congress had pushed the administration to include certain names, while Russian businessmen hired lobbyists to keep them off.
In the end, the list of 114 Russian politicians released just before a Monday evening deadline included the whole of Putin's administration, as listed by the Kremlin on its website, plus the Russian cabinet, all top law enforcement officials and chief executives of the main state-controlled companies.
President Putin even joked on Tuesday that he felt "slighted" that his name wasn't there.
A companion list of 96 "oligarchs" is a carbon copy of the Forbes magazine's Russian billionaires' rankings, only arranged alphabetically. It makes no distinction between those who are tied to the Kremlin and those who are not. Some of the people on the list have long fallen out with the Kremlin or are widely considered to have built their fortunes independently of the Russian government.
Officials said more names, including those of less senior politicians and businesspeople worth less than $1 billion, are on a classified version of the list being provided to Congress. Drawing on U.S. intelligence, the Treasury Department also finalized a list of at least partially state-owned companies in Russia, but that list, too, was classified and sent only to Congress.
The idea of the seven-page unclassified document, as envisioned by Congress, was to name-and-shame those believed to be benefiting from Putin's tenure, as the United States works to isolate his government diplomatically and economically.
Every top Russian official except for Putin is on the list of 114 senior political figures. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is on it, along with all ministers from the Russian government, all 42 of Putin's aides, and top law enforcement officials. The CEOs of all major state-owned companies, including energy giant Rosneft and Sberbank, are also on the list.
