Russian PM says US’ Kremlin report means ‘zero’

However, as the deadline finally arrived amid speculation if the White House would actually dare to upset Russian Federation given the warm relationship between Trump and Putin, the State Department released a statement claiming the threat of facing sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) was already “serving as a deterrent”.

U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in late 2016 that Putin had directed a broad effort to influence the presidential election that year.

And the document says that the inclusion of the names “in no way should be interpreted as imposing sanctions on these individuals or organizations”.

Putin called the release of the list an “unfriendly step” that he said would further complicate US-Russian ties as well as global relations in general.

The Tennessee senator said now that that time period has ended, the administration “will begin to. put sanctions in place” against those that didn’t heed their earlier warning.

If Trump didn’t opt to delay, he would have to impose at least five sanctions on those that knowingly conduct significant transactions with Russian Federation. It triggered a fierce lobbying campaign, with Russia hawks in Congress pushing the administration to include certain names and lobbyists hired by Russian businessmen urging the administration to keep their clients off. Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Bob Corker, who is sometimes a critic of the president’s, told reporters Tuesday morning that the sanctions decision has “a lot of misinformation” surrounding it.

The list carries no penalties, but many wealthy Russians fear they could be sanctioned in the future and have their overseas assets seized.

The State Department spokesperson added: “Further details are contained in a classified report we have submitted to Congress”. Even without legal teeth, its imminent release has been front page news in Russian Federation. “It’s not clear what the government will do with the list”. Mr Medvedev said at the time it meant the United States had declared a “full-scale trade war” on Russian Federation.

The US Treasury Department did not respond to Business Insider’s emails or phone calls about the makeup of the list. She said that this is an attempt also to lower the support for the existing President.

The report further stated that the Russian businessmen, who are some of the world’s richest people, perceived this informal US government-made list as a threat to their wealth, image and contacts in the West, possibly making them open to sanctions in the future.

Peskov shrugged it off, however, saying that “we are convinced that it will have no influence” on the Russian election.

The report includes Russian politicians and businessmen, who, according to Washington, are members of Russian President Putin’s team. The fact it was released about 10 minutes before midnight may reflect Mr Trump’s coolness towards it, and his opposition to punishing more Russians with sanctions.

The report was mandated by Congress after the USA intelligence community accused Moscow of attempting to influence the 2016 US presidential election.

The Kremlin said the list could damage the reputation of those named. “Congress took action arguably against the White House desires”.