Washington and its allies have prepared a list of Russian elites in or near Vladimir Putin’s inner circle who would be hit with economic sanctions if the Kremlin were to order an invasion of Ukraine, according to a US briefing.
The language in the briefing by a US official to Reuters is notably similar to that used on Sunday by the UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, who said Britain would introduce legislation to allow banks, energy companies and “oligarchs close to the Kremlin” to be targeted by London, and makes clear the targeting would be coordinated internationally.
“The individuals we have identified are in or near the inner circles of the Kremlin and play a role in government decision-making or are at a minimum complicit in the Kremlin’s destabilising behavior,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Names were not made available but the official said the sanctions list would consist of elite figures – or oligarchs – plus their family members.
“There is a broad list of individuals we can pull from,” the official told Reuters, noting that some would be from a classified list of senior Russian political figures and oligarchs outlined in section 241 of the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act in a report sent to the US Congress in 2018.
That list contains 114 “senior political figures” – though not Putin himself – and a further 96 “oligarchs”, although it is three years out of date.
“Putin’s cronies will no longer be able to use their spouses or other family members as proxies to evade sanctions. Sanctions would cut them off from the international financial system and ensure that they and their family members will no longer able to enjoy the perks of parking their money in the west and attending elite western universities,” the official added.
A shorter list of eight named individuals was published a year ago by an ally of the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, selected from a longer, unreleased list of 35. Their number included the Chelsea football club owner, Roman Abramovich, and the metals magnate Alisher Usmanov, who has links to Everton FC.
That list appears to have inspired other efforts by US lawmakers to sanction Kremlin insiders, including the recently introduced Putin Accountability Act, which targets an identical roster of 35 Russian oligarchs and top officials.
It is not known if Abramovich or Usmanov appear on the sanctions list briefed by the US on Monday. Both have denied they are close to the Kremlin.
The UK’s announcement of new legislation targeting Russian entities and people drew a fierce response from the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, who described the proposed measures as an “outright attack on business” and threatened retaliation.
“The statements made in London are very disquieting,” Peskov said during a telephone briefing. “I believe they not just make us, our companies, worry, they also demonstrate a significant degree of London’s unpredictability, which is a reason for serious concern of international financial institutions and business entities.”
Peskov did not specifically respond to threats against wealthy Russians close to Putin, but he described the threat of sanctions as illegitimate, saying they would harm Russian and British business interests.
“We should call a spade a spade: sanctions are something legitimate, formalised by a resolution of the UN security council, while here we are dealing with an outright attack on business,” he said during the call.
The anti-corruption campaigner Bill Browder called on Britain to target Russian oligarchs close to Putin with economic sanctions to halt any invasion of Ukraine.
The US-born financier believes the most effective means of getting the Russian president’s attention is to target his finances and the finances of those closest to him, and that there should be no need for the UK to wait and see if there is a war.
“They should sanction five oligarchs tomorrow. That would show there is political will to do this. Then [they] should sanction another five if they don’t pull back in the 10 days, and the top 50 if they invade,” Browder told the Guardian.
Truss is expected to unveil legislation in the Commons on Monday afternoon to allow Britain to target companies and elite individuals.