The US Treasury Department has published its long-awaited ‘Kremlin Report’ containing a list of 210 Russian state officials and billionaires who could be subject to US sanctions in the future. The figures on the list are seen as close to Putin’s inner circle and benefitting unfairly from the regime.

Among the updated list are the entire Russian government, oligarchs, employees of the presidential administration and ‘other high-ranking political figures’.

In particular, the headliners to have been included on the ‘Kremlin Report’ are presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, head of the Presidential Administration Anton Vaino, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

Furthermore, the published report names and shames the heads of Russian state security, judicial and political entities. These include Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of the State Duma, Valentina Matvienko, the fiery head of the Federation Council, Alexander Bortnikov, FSB director, General Prosecutor Yuri Chaika and Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow.

The ‘Kremlin Report’ has also targeted the leaders of Russian state companies. Unsurprisingly, Igor Sechin and Alexey Miller, the heads of Rosneft and Gazprom respectively, had their names included. Oleg Belozerov, General Director of Russian Railways, Herman Gref, head of Sberbank, and Sergei Chemezov, director of Rostech, also feature.

The US Treasury published its findings just before midnight on 29th January in accordance with the ‘Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act’ passed by Congress in August 2017. The law, intended to punish Russia for its alleged meddling in US elections, contained a clause demanding that the Treasury publish a list of Russian officials and businessmen deemed in close proximity to Vladimir Putin and his inner circle by 29th January 2018.

Interestingly, the Trump administration has decided not to proceed with sanctions against the names featured in the report, much to the chagrin of leading Congress officials. While the house wanted Russian officials to be punished immediately for the annexation of Crimea and interfering in US elections, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert confirmed that the president would not take actions against those mentioned because the original law passed by Congress was working impressively as a ‘deterrent’. She further affirmed that countries around the world were cancelling planned deals with the Russian defence industry as a result of US legislative actions. Should relations deteriorate further, those listed in the report will face the imposition of sanctions.

Moscow reacted with disdain to the ‘Kremlin Report’, calling it a ‘regular attempt to influence the [Russian] presidential elections planned in March 2018’. Putin labelled the report ‘nonsense’, claiming that it essentially amounted to a ‘who’s who’ in Russian politics and business. Konstantin Kosachev, foreign affairs committee chief for the State Duma, mocked the US, accusing them of merely ‘copying the Kremlin phonebook’.

The US Treasury report also contained a surprising list of Russian oligarchs both home and abroad. Alisher Usmanov, owner of Kommersant and major shareholder in Arsenal Football Club, and Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea FC, made it onto the ‘Kremlin Report’. They are followed by billionaire oligarch and philanthropist Oleg Deripaska. As noted by the Financial Times, the list of Russian oligarchs in the Treasury report perfectly mirrors last year’s Forbes’ richest Russians rankings.