President Vladimir Putin of Russia said Tuesday that he has not seen the so-called “Kremlin list” released by the U.S. earlier in the day, but colleagues informed him about the document.
The incumbent president, who will be running in the March 2018 presidential elections as an independent candidate, met with his authorised representatives on Tuesday.
“I have not seen the document, I have not seen the list, I have not seen any appendices to it.
“They say there are some secret ones. In the morning my colleagues informed me about this, but have not looked at it yet,” Putin said.
When asked about his reaction to not being included in the list, the president joked saying that he felt “sad.”
“What I want to say in general about this issue – not about this list, but about this issue – we need to, first and foremost, think about ourselves.
“We need to deal with our economy, agriculture, we need to support export, health, education, defence, and then they will realise that there is no sense in compiling lists, threatening, frightening or trying to restrain our development – this is the most important thing that we need to do,” Putin said.
NAN reports that On Monday, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow will analyse the report and the actions following the report to ensure its interests and the interests of related Russian companies.
The list was issued in connection with the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act.
It names 210 political figures and “oligarchs” as “determined by their closeness to the Russian regime and their net worth”.
It also names 114 political figures, including the chief executives of powerful state companies such as natural gas exporter Gazprom and oil major Rosneft, and the heads of the country’s top spy agencies.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is named, as are dozens of members of his cabinet, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and more than 40 members of the presidential administration, excluding Putin.
The list of 96 “oligarchs,” assessed as having wealth upwards of one billion dollars, includes influential investor Roman Abramovich and industrial magnates Oleg Deripaska and Alexander Abramov. (Sputnik/NAN)