Russians are Baffled by the United States Treasury’s Latest Sanctions List · Global Voices
The White House in Moscow, the seat of Russia's government
Credit: <PERSON> // CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
January 29 was set to be a big day in the world of American sanctions against Russia. Earlier in 2017, United States (U.S.) president <PERSON> signed into law the “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act” (CAATSA), stipulating a host of new sanctions to be applied at the discretion of the White House within 180 days of passage.
CAATSA also mandated the “Kremlin Report” to single out key figures in Russian president <PERSON>’s entourage, along with exposing their financial holdings. Russian elites were reportedly thrown into a panic, lobbying to have their names excluded. Yet Russia’s political elite registered a collective smirk at the seemingly toothless unclassified report released on January 30.
The public version was simply a reprinted list of a Forbes’ list of the richest Russian businessmen. Names on the list of <PERSON>’s presidential administration were clearly copied and pasted from the Kremlin’s English-language website.
Sanctions shmanctions
The implementation of sanctions remains a hot-button issue as the <PERSON> administration continues to grapple with accusations of Russian collusion in 2016 U.S. presidential elections. Enforcing sanctions would allow the U.S. to appear ‘tough’ on Russia. 880
CAATSA's deadline to announce new sanctions loomed, but the White House decided to refrain, saying the sanctions already in place were sufficient.
An uproar ensued on social media, but Twitter user <PERSON> cautioned:
So no sanx is not an unreasonable stance since those sanx target entities *outside* of Russia for their Russian transactions. Basically everything inside Russia is already sanctioned. 5/
— <PERSON> (@brianoftoole) 30 января 2018 г.
Once the derivative list of Kremlin political and economic elites was published, Western observers were extremely disappointed:
That the White House found a way to not enact sanctions and put together such a ridiculously shoddy list of sanctions targets, seemingly at the last minute, is truly mind-boggling.
— <PERSON> (@wiczipedia) 30 января 2018 г.
You're assuming its actually a policy, or that they tried to comply with the law and failed (demonstrating incompetence). I almost suspect this was something of a calculated snub to Congress by the WH.
— <PERSON> (@DaraghMcdowell) 30 января 2018 г.
Others cautioned that the current list was the unclassified version, holding out hope that the classified version reviewed by Congress would be more robust:
Much guffawing in Moscow as U.S. “oligarch list” is carbon copy of Forbes list of $1bn+ Russians. But we've only seen the unclassified version. Classified report expected to include details of Kremlin relations, closeness to <PERSON> and potential grounds for sanctions
— <PERSON> (@HenryJFoy) 30 января 2018 г.
List? What list?
At a campaign event for the 2018 Russian presidential elections, <PERSON> approached the list lightheartedly:
Путин: В списке Минфина США вся администрация президента, все правительство, весь бизнес. За каждым из этих людей стоят рядовые граждане, трудовые коллективы. Всех нас, 140 миллионов человек, занесли в этот список! ?
— Znak.com (@znak_com) 30 января 2018 г.
<PERSON>: The U.S.A. 880