MOSCOW – The Russian president has commented on the report, released by theUS administration on Monday, which includes a list of 114 Russianpoliticians and 96 businessmen who may face new US sanctions in the future.
The US Treasury Department intends to impose new anti-Russian sanctions in”near future,” within next several months, according to Treasury SecretarySteve Mnuchin. This comes after earlier in the day, Mnuchin said “therewill be sanctions that come outlink>”of the so-called “Kremlin report” that was released on Monday.
Reaction of Russian Establishment
Commenting on the release of the report, President Putin joked he was “sad”that he hadn’t been on the list, adding that he only heard of the documentfrom his colleagues but hadn’t seen it.
“We [Russia] need most of all to think about ourselves, we need to dealwith our economy, agriculture, we need to support exports, health,education, defense,” Putin noted, saying Russia needs to focus on itsinternal development rather than on a list prepared by foreign states. IfRussia is fully developed, he added, there will be a common understandingthere is no point “in compelling any lists, threatening [Russia] or tryingto deter our development.”
[image: A portion of Russian Embassy complex in in Washington. File photo]The Russian president went on to say that the report represents anunfriendly step by the US administration, saying that it harmsMoscow-Washington relations. Putin pointed out that that people behind thereport are attacking their own government, by pushing ittoward confrontation with Moscow.
Despite that, Moscow will refrain from retaliatory measures and will actin accordance with the development of the situation, Putin added, sayingthat Russia is in favor of development of relations with the US.
President Putin’s reaction to the report follows statementslink>madeby the representatives of Russia’s establishment, including Prime ministerDmitry Medvedev, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov and Russian upperhouse speaker Valentina Matvienko.
While Peskov said that the inclusion of top Russian politicians andbusinessmen in the report was “unprecedented,” Matvienko called thepublication of the document a “flagrant interference” in Moscow’s domesticaffairs.
Medvedev jokingly said that non-inclusion to the reports is a reasonto quit the Russian government, stressing that almost everyone put into anadministrative position by President Putin has been added to the report.