Russian bank CEOs, metals magnates, gas chief on US 'oligarchs' list'

The US Treasury Department on Tuesday named major Russian businessmen including the heads of the two biggest banks, metals magnates and the boss of the state gas monopoly on a list of oligarchs close to the Kremlin.

The list, drawn up as part of a sanctions package signed into law in August last year, does not mean those included will be subject to sanctions, but it casts a potential shadow of sanctions risk over a wide circle of wealthy Russians.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's inner circle is already subject to personal US sanctions, imposed over Russia's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's' Crimea region.

But the so-called "oligarchs' list" that was released on Tuesday, prompted in part by Washington's belief the Kremlin meddled in the 2016 US presidential election, covers many people beyond Putin's circle and reaches deep into Russia's business elite.

The Treasury Department, in a statement accompanying the list, said people had been included based on their net worth and "their closeness to the Russian regime."

It said inclusion does not denote that people on the list are subject to sanctions or any other restrictions, that they meet the criteria for being put under sanctions, or that they are involved in any malign activity.

A wide-ranging list

Among the businessmen on the list are German Gref, CEO of state-controlled Sberbank, Russia's biggest lender, and Andrey Kostin, chief executive of the second-biggest lender, VTB, which is also controlled by the Russian state.

Alexei Miller, CEO of state-controlled gas export monopoly Gazprom, was on the list.

Oleg Deripaska, co-owner of Rusal, the world's second-largest aluminium producer, Alexei Mordashov, co-owner of Severstal, one of Russia's largest steel producers, and Leonid Mikhelson, co-owner of private gas producer Novatek, were also included.

Metals magnate Alisher Usmanov, who is part owner of London's Arsenal soccer club, and Eugene Kaspersky, CEO of the Moscow-based cybersecurity company that carries his name, was included on the list of oligarchs.

No immediate additional sanctions

Tuesday's list is part of a broad US response to alleged Russian interference in the 2016 elections. However, the Trump administration said on Monday it would not immediately impose additional sanctions on Russia, despite a new law designed to punish Moscow's apparent meddling, insisting the measure was already hitting Russian companies.

"Today, we have informed Congress that this legislation and its implementation are deterring Russian defence sales," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.

"Since the enactment of the ... legislation, we estimate that foreign governments have abandoned planned or announced purchases of several billion dollars in Russian defence acquisitions."

Seeking to press President Donald Trump to clamp down on Russia, the US Congress voted nearly unanimously last year to pass a law setting sweeping new sanctions on Moscow.

Trump, who wanted warmer ties with Moscow and had opposed the legislation as it worked its way through Congress, signed it reluctantly in August, just six months into his presidency.

Under the measure, the administration faced a deadline on Monday to impose sanctions on anyone determined to conduct significant business with Russian defence and intelligence sectors, already sanctioned for their alleged role in the election.

But citing long time frames associated with major defence deals, Nauert said it was better to wait to impose those sanctions.

"From that perspective, if the law is working, sanctions on specific entities or individuals will not need to be imposed because the legislation is, in fact, serving as a deterrent," she said in a statement.

The measure, known as the "Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act," or CAATSA, required the administration to list "oligarchs" close to President Vladimir Putin's government and issue a report detailing possible consequences of penalising Russia's sovereign debt.

Monday's deadline to release those reports was seen as a test of Trump's willingness to clamp down on Russia. Critics blasted him for failing to announce any sanctions.

"The State Department claims that the mere threat of sanctions will deter Russia’s aggressive behaviour. How do you deter an attack that happened two years ago, and another that’s already underway? It just doesn’t make sense," said Representative Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.

"I’m fed up waiting for this Administration to protect our country and our elections," he said in a statement.

Members of Congress, including Democrats and some of Trump's fellow Republicans, have been clamouring for his administration to use sanctions to punish Moscow for past election interference and prevent future meddling in US polls.

Investigation into Russian actions

Several US congressional committees, as well as Special Counsel Robert Mueller, are investigating whether Russia tried to tilt last November's election in Trump's favour, using means such as hacking into the emails of senior Democrats and promoting divisive social and political messages online. Trump and the Kremlin have separately denied any collusion.

Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, one of the main congressional architects of the sanctions law, said he was not concerned that the administration did not announce sanctions by Monday's deadline.

"This is when sanctions season begins, and so they'll be rolling them out," he told reporters.

"We feel pretty good about the process," Corker said. "They're rushing the information over to us today, and by the close of business, they're going to have two of the three, as I understand it. So they're taking it very seriously."