Twelve minutes before a midnight deadline on Monday, the Treasury Department released a list of 114 Russian politicians and 96 billionaire "oligarchs" who have prospered enormously under Russian President Vladimir Putin's more than 18 years in power. Congress demanded that the Trump administration release the list by the end of Monday as part of legislation that passed last year with veto-proof majorities in Congress, as punishment for Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Earlier Monday, the State Department said that the Trump administration would not actually punish anybody right now under the sanctions.
The list, intended to name-and-shame Russia's political and economic elite, includes just about everybody who has flourished under Putin, including Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, the heads of Russia's top intelligence agencies, Cabinet ministers, and the CEOs of state energy giant Rosneft and other top Russian state companies. Along with "Putin's list" of Russia's power-wielders, the 96 "oligarchs" include former Paul Manafort patron Oleg Deripaska, Roman Abramovich, and Mikhail Prokhorov. Some of the 210 individuals are already covered by U.S. sanctions imposed under former President Barack Obama, but none of them currently faces further punishment — other than notoriety — from being on this list.
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