Washington (US) – According to a senior administration official, the US and its allies have created a list of Russian elites in or near Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle who will face economic sanctions if Russia invades Ukraine.
“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 destabilizing behavior,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
According to the official, the US has devised special sanctions packages for Russian elites who fulfil the criteria as well as their family members, and these efforts are being carried out in collaboration with US friends and partners.
The US and its allies have devised a strategy to punish Putin if he launches an invasion of Ukraine after massing tens of thousands of troops on the Ukrainian border. Russia has denied any intention of invading Ukraine.
President Joe Biden has not ruled out putting sanctions on Putin himself.
U.S. officials have already detailed other penalties that include sanctions on Russian financial institutions and export control measures that could attempt to choke off broad swaths of industrial and consumer technologies to Russia.
The official would not provide names of Russian figures who could be sanctioned.
“There is a broad list of individuals we can pull from,” the official said, noting that some will 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 U.S. Congress in 2018.
“We cannot disclose the contents of this list or name specific names given flight risks, but it provides ample targets and family networks involved in stashing their assets,” the official said.
The official said many of the individuals are particularly vulnerable targets because of deepened financial ties with the West.
“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.