The U.S. List of Russian Oligarchs Is a Disgrace

The Moscow Times
Jan. 30 2018

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and Putin

The U.S. Treasury Department spent six months compiling lists of Russian political leaders and “oligarchs” as required by last year’s sanctions legislation. The end result is a bizarre cut-and-paste job where some of the inclusions, and some of the omissions, make little sense. The individuals on the list aren’t subject to any restrictions (except the 22 who are already on previous sanctions lists). But the publication of their names in connection with Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. sanctions will serve as a warning to anyone dealing with them that they might have a problem with the U.S. government in the future, at its convenience. That, in turn, may make many Western banks reluctant to take their money. Not that Treasury seems concerned about the implications of its list. To compile the list, the Treasury apparently consulted with experts and apparently withstood fierce lobbying from wealthy Russians who didn’t want to be on the list. In the end, though, seven pages of the unclassified part of the Treasury’s report are copied directly from the English-language websites of the Kremlin and the Russian government, as well as the Russian edition of Forbes’ billionaires list.

As the first editorial director and publisher of Forbes Russia, I’m flattered that the U.S. government chose it as an unassailably authoritative source on who counts as an oligarch in Russia. I also know that Forbes Russia has never pretended that its rich list was complete or that the wealth estimates were accurate. The experts who were apparently consulted about the Treasury Department’s list — Anders Aslund, Andrei Illarionov and Andrei Piontkovsky, as well as former Treasury sanctions coordinator Daniel Fried — published their vision of criteria for the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (Caatsa) list in November. They argued it should include people genuinely close to Putin and those who have enriched themselves “through corrupt commercial operations with the Putin regime.” Following these criteria would have meant using two other Forbes Russia lists than the billionaire one. The magazine also publishes rankings of the wealthiest officials and legislators and “government contract kings.” These provide a far more accurate picture of who has benefited from the regime. I’m willing to give the U.S. administration the benefit of the doubt, though. President Donald Trump signed the sanctions act only reluctantly, and perhaps Treasury was never serious about compiling the lists. That the administration doesn’t recommend any new sanctions appears indirectly to confirm this theory.

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Rogue Valley said:

US Treasury compiled their Russia "sanctions list" by copying "directly from the English-language websites of the Kremlin and the Russian government, as well as the Russian edition of Forbes’ billionaires list". This took Treasury five months? I could have done the same in roughly 60 minutes. Names are there that shouldn't be listed, and crucial names are missing (because they are millionaires and not billionaires) that should be listed.

I haven't seen work this shabby since Junior High. It's clear the Trump administration has no gumption to levy consequences against the regime that continually cyber-attacks our institutions, our infrastructure, and our electoral process.

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