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February 2, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 3
corruption trial of Economics Minister Alexey Ulyukayev, Sechin ignored multiple court orders to show up and testify as a witness, as it was Sechin that handed Ulyukayev a bag of money. Sechin simply said he was “too busy” to come to court.
The list also has the names of 114 senior politicians and members of the Russian leadership. All of the presidential administration, the cabinet, a number of presidential advisers and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev are also included in the list.
Among them are First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, Deputy Prime Ministers Sergey Prikhodko, Alexander Khloponin, Vitaly Mutko, Arkady Dvorkovich, Olga Golodets, Dmitry Kozak and Dmitry Rogozin, and other 22 ministers, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu, Tass reports. Presidential Administration chief Anton Vaino and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov were also included on the list.
The report was mandated by the Congress under the new round of sanctions sighed off on in August 2017. As reported by bne IntelliNews, the imminent publication of the list put Russia’s elite in a frenzy.
After the sanctions list update on January 26 the US Treasury is taking a pause, possibly to bring the more damaging information out closer to the Russian presidential election set for March.
Heather Nauert, the state department spokesper- son, said the Donald Trump administration had notified Congress on January 29 that the legisla- tion in place was already helping to limit Russian
defence sales and there was no need at the pre- sent time to impose further sanctions under the CAATSA regime (Countering Adversaries Through Sanctions Act). There are much more damaging sanctions that could wreck Russia’s ability to do business in the US and badly damage it in Europe if adopted in their entirety.
“This is not a sanctions list,” the Treasury Depart- ment stressed. “No restrictions are slapped on the individuals on the list. The inclusion of these individuals on the list does not create any obsta- cles for business contacts of US citizens provided that they are not subject to sanctions.”
While the oligarchs have not been sanctioned as part of the Kremlin report briefing, the State Department went out of its way to emphasis Russia’s defence sector may be targeted.
New sanctions against Russia, if they are intro- duced, will affect the partners of the Russian defence industry complex and its intelligence services, a representative with the US Department of State told a TASS correspondent.
"Starting today, the State Department can be-
gin imposing sanctions under Section 231 of the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanc- tions Act, or CAATSA, for significant transactions with the Russian defence or intelligence sector," the representative said. "When and if we have sanctions to announce, we will do so. Gener-
ally speaking, should sanctions be imposed, they would primarily be on non-Russian entities that are responsible for significant transactions with Russia’s defence and intelligence sector," the of- ficial said.