Russia reacts to U.S. government's not-too-shocking list of shame
MOSCOW -- The U.S. State Department announced Monday evening that new sanctions will not be imposed against a list of prominent Russian figures with close ties to Vladimir Putin.
The Treasury Department published the list of more than 200 political players and "oligarchs" late Monday night under mandate of a U.S. law aimed at punishing Russia for meddling in the U.S. election and other transgressions.
Reacting to the list on Tuesday, Putin called its publication an "unfriendly act," and warned that it would further complicate already-strained U.S.-Russian relations.
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His spokesman said earlier that the Kremlin would take time to study the list before giving an official reaction to it, but he said its publication made it appear that the U.S. government views virtually all of Russia's political class as enemies.
"De-facto everyone has been called an adversary of the United States," spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Both he and his boss made it clear that Moscow would "refrain" from any immediate countermeasures.
Putin even offered a joke at the U.S. Treasury's expense, telling journalists in Moscow he was "offended" not to have been placed on the list himself.
As CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports, there were a lot of relieved high-powered Russians in Moscow on Tuesday morning -- some of them inside the Kremlin itself.
They had been afraid the U.S. Treasury would publish embarrassing details about their political connections, or their wealth, but in the end it turned out to be just a list of names and job titles.
The list includes obvious Putin allies, such as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, business heavyweights like German Gref, the head of Russia's biggest bank, and Oleg Deripaska, a former business partner of Paul Manafort -- President Trump's ex-campaign manager.
But there's no singling out of people who are especially close to Putin -- or viewed as being especially corrupt.
Some Russian journalists have even pointed out that the Treasury's list pretty closely matches Forbes list of the richest Russians. The Russian officials are listed pretty much as they are on the Kremlin's own website.
The Treasury spells out that being on the list doesn't mean sanctions will follow, so everyone in Moscow is asking, what exactly is it for?
