31.01.2018, Moscow.
The uncertainty of the “Kremlin Report” works to split the Russian elite, Experimental Creative Center International Public Foundation Vice President Yury Byaly said on January 30 in an interview to a correspondent of the Rossa Primavera Information Agency.
“It is unclear whether sanctions will be imposed or not, and against whom if they will be, as it has been said that some part of the ‘sanctions list’ is classified. This, first of all, further splits the Russian elite into those who choose to save their money at any cost and are ready to bow down before the US, and those who decisively refuse to do so,” Byaly said.
“Secondly, it results in inevitable complications for all of the Russian companies that have operations with foreign banks and corporations. Since these foreign business contacts do not know who among their Russian partners is going to suffer sanctions, they can start ‘preemptively’ breaking their financial and trade links with these partners,” the expert commented.
Previously, Russian presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the “Kremlin Report” was an attempt to sow conflict between Vladimir Putin and the Russian business elite, and to influence the situation in Russia before the elections.
On January 30, the US Department of the Treasury submitted the “Kremlin Report” to Congress under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA). It listed 210 names, including 114 high-ranking Russian officials and heads of state-owned companies.
The scope of the Report included Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, all of his deputies, ministers of the Russian Government, Presidential Chief of Staff Anton Vayno, Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Secretary of the Security Council Nikolay Patrushev, the heads of the FSB (Federal Security Service), FSO (Federal Protective Service), and SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service) Aleksandr Bortnikov, Dmitry Kochnev, and Sergey Naryshkin, the heads of VTB Bank and Sberbank Andrey Kostin and German Gref.
The Report also includes 96 “oligarchs whose fortune, according to reliable public sources, exceeds $1 billion”.
The “Kremlin Report” does not impose any sanctions against those listed.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
