The United States punished dozens of Russian oligarchs and government officials yesterday with sanctions that took direct aim at President Vladimir Putin's inner circle. Picture / AP
The United States punished dozens of Russian oligarchs and government officials yesterday with sanctions that took direct aim at President Vladimir Putin's inner circle, as President Donald Trump's administration tried to show he's not afraid to take tough action against Moscow.
Seven Russian tycoons, including aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, were targeted, along with 17 officials and a dozen Russian companies, the Treasury Department said. Senior Trump Administration officials cast it as part of a concerted, ongoing effort to push back on Putin, emphasising that since Trump took office last year, the US has punished 189 Russia-related people and entities with sanctions.
Rather than punishing Russia for one specific action, the new sanctions hit back at the Kremlin for its "ongoing and increasingly brazen pattern" of bad behaviour, said the officials, who weren't authorised to comment by name and briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.
The officials ticked through a list of complaints about Russia's actions beyond its borders, including its annexation of Crimea, backing of separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, support for Syrian President Bashar Assad, and cyber-hacking.
Above all else, Russia's attempts to subvert Western democracy prompted the US sanctions, officials said, in a direct nod to concerns that the US President has failed to challenge Putin for alleged interference in the 2016 election that brought Trump to power.
Deripaska, whose business conglomerate controls assets from agriculture to machinery, has been a prominent figure in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation over his ties to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. The Treasury Department said Deripaska was accused of illegal wiretaps, extortion, racketeering, money laundering and even death threats against business rivals.
On the London Stock Exchange, global depositary receipts of En+, an energy company majority-owned by Deripaska, dropped by 19 per cent on news of the sanctions. Deripaska's conglomerate, Basic Element, said it regretted the sanctions and was analysing them with its lawyers.
Putin's government dismissed the sanctions as "absurdity", arguing that the US was punishing companies that have longstanding business ties to the US. The Russian Foreign Ministry said the US was "striking at ordinary Americans" by jeopardising "thousands of jobs".
"American democracy is clearly degrading," the ministry said. "Of course, we will not leave the current and any new anti-Russian attack without a tough response."
To the dismay of Trump's critics and of Russia hawks, the President has continued to avoid directly criticising Putin himself and recently invited the Russian leader to meet with him, possibly at the White House.
Yet in recent weeks Trump's Administration has rolled out a series of actions — including several economic and diplomatic steps — to increase pressure on Putin and those presumed to benefit from his power.
"Nobody has been tougher on Russia than I have," Trump said at a news conference this week.
Yet even as it rolled out the new penalties, Trump's Administration left open the possibility of "a good relationship with Russia" in the future. And at the White House, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said discussions with Moscow about a Trump-Putin summit would not be called off.
"Not at all," Sanders said. "We'll continue."
A look at some of those targeted by the new US sanctions:
• Kirill Shamalov: At 36, he is Russia's youngest billionaire and reportedly married to President Vladimir Putin's daughter Katerina Tikhonova. The Treasury Department states directly that he is Putin's son-in-law, although the Kremlin has never acknowledged that Tikhonova is Putin's younger daughter. Media reports earlier this year said the couple had split. In 2014, Shamalov acquired a large share of Russian petrochemical company Sibur, later selling most of his stake for an undisclosed sum. Forbes magazine estimated his wealth at US$1.4 billion ($1.9b).
• Igor Rotenberg: He is the 44-year-old son of billionaire Arkady Rotenberg, Putin's friend since both started practicing judo as teenagers in the 1960s. He began his career as a partner of his father and later came to control the oil and gas exploration company Gazprom Burenie and an operator of a nationwide toll system for heavy trucks. Forbes estimated his wealth at more than US$1.1b.
• Oleg Deripaska: The metals tycoon controls a business empire with assets in aluminum, energy and construction and is worth US$5.3b, according to Forbes. Deripaska, 55, figured in the Russia investigation over his ties to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who once worked as his consultant.
• Viktor Vekselberg: The magnate built his fortune, currently estimated by Forbes at US$14.6b, by investing in aluminum and oil industries. More recently, he has expanded his assets to include industrial equipment and high technologies. Vekselberg, 60, also gained notoriety in 2004 by buying the world's largest private collection of imperial Faberge eggs — nine in total — and bringing it back to Russia.
• Andrei Kostin: He heads Russia's second-largest bank, VTB, which is majority-owned by the state and plays a pivotal role in the Russian economy. Kostin, 61, is part of the Kremlin elite and is involved in making key economic decisions.
• Alexei Miller: The CEO of Gazprom, Russia's state-controlled natural gas giant, is a longtime associate of Putin's. Miller, 56, has played a key role in spearheading Gazprom's expansion, including its booming gas sales to Europe.
• Nikolai Patrushev: The KGB veteran is the secretary of the presidential Security Council, a body that includes Cabinet members and chiefs of intelligence agencies. Patrushev, 66, known for his hawkish anti-Western stance, has been involved in preparing key foreign policy decisions and is believed to be one of Putin's closest and most influential advisers.
• Viktor Zolotov: He began his career as a KGB bodyguard in the 1970s and served as the chief of the presidential security service for 13 years from 2000. Zolotov, 64, is another powerful representative of Kremlin hawks. As the National Guard chief, he commands a force that numbers hundreds of thousands of troops.
• Alexei Dyumin: He served as Putin's chief security guard and assistant before being promoted to lead the Russian military's special operations forces. In 2014, he oversaw the annexation of Crimea and the following year became a deputy defence minister. Since his 2016 appointment as governor of the Tula region, Dyumin, 45, has received unusually prominent coverage by state media, fueling speculation Putin is grooming him as a possible successor.
• Yevgeny Shkolov: He reportedly has known Putin since the 1980s when they worked together as KGB officers in Dresden, East Germany. In 2012, Putin named Shkolov to a key Kremlin position overseeing personnel and later put him in charge of anti-corruption efforts. Shkolov, 62, has kept a low profile but is believed to be close to Putin.
• Vladimir Kolokoltsev: A career police officer, he became Russia's interior minister in charge of the entire national police force in 2012. Kolokoltsev, 56, is considered to be a good professional who doesn't have much political clout.
• Mikhail Fradkov: Now 67, he began his career as a Soviet foreign trade official and then held a succession of government jobs, serving as Prime Minister from 2004 to 2007 during Putin's second presidential term. For the following decade, he headed Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, the KGB successor agency dealing with spying abroad. In 2017, he was given an honorary position at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, a government-funded think tank that was reportedly involved in Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.
• Alexander Zharov: The 53-year-old head of Roskomnadzor, the state communications oversight agency, has directed its efforts to shut down some online media and other resources critical of the Kremlin, but he's not perceived as someone who wields any political influence.
• Konstantin Kosachev: He is a 55-year-old career diplomat who held various Foreign Ministry positions until his election to parliament in 1999. As the chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the upper house of parliament, Kosachev has actively promoted the Kremlin foreign policy agenda, but like other members of the rubber-stamp parliament he's not seen as close to decision-making.
The US list includes several companies owned and controlled by Deripaska, including Basic Element Limited and EN+ Group, which is registered in Jersey. The list also includes companies controlled by Shamalov, Rotenberg and Vekselberg. In addition, the sanctions target the state-controlled arms trader, Rosoboronexport, and the Russian Financial Corporation Bank owned by it.
- AP
Peter Lewis is upgrading his 12 rentals but has questioned why others are exempt.