Putin bristles at U.S. shame list of prominent Russians

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday called the U.S. government’s release of a list of Russian businessmen and politicians a “hostile step.” A law passed in 2017 in response to possible Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election required the U.S. Treasury Department to compile for Congress a list of Russian oligarchs and politicians. Some in Congress expected the White House to sanction the individuals on the list, but the Trump administration said it would not do that. At this point, the list serves mainly to call out those who might benefit from corruption in the Kremlin. Putin said he does not expect the publishing of the list to have any effect and expressed dismay at its broad scope. “Ordinary Russian citizens, employees, and entire industries are behind each of those people and companies, so all 146 million people have essentially been put on this list,” the Russian president said at a campaign event in Moscow. “What is the point of this? I don’t understand.” Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny tweeted Tuesday he was “glad that these [people] have been officially recognized on the international level as crooks and thieves.”