Image copyright PA/EPA Image caption Oligarch Roman Abramovich (l) and PM Dmitry Medvedev are on the list

Russian President Vladimir Putin says a list of officials and businessmen close to the Kremlin published by the US has in effect targeted all Russian people.

The list names 210 top Russians as part of a sanctions law aimed at punishing Moscow for meddling in the US election.

However, the US stressed those named were not subject to new sanctions.

Mr Putin said the list was an unfriendly act that complicated US-Russia ties but he said he did not want to escalate the situation.

Mr Putin said Russia should instead be thinking about "ourselves and the economy".

The list was also derided by a number of senior Russian officials who said it bore a strong resemblance to the Forbes magazine ranking of Russian billionaires. A US Treasury Department later told Buzzfeed that an unclassified annex of the report had been derived from the magazine.

Why did the US publish the list?

The government was required to draw up the list after Congress passed the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (Caatsa) in August.

The law aimed to punish Russia for its alleged meddling in the 2016 US presidential election and its actions in Ukraine.

Congress wanted the list to name and shame those who had benefited from close association with President Putin and put them on notice that they could be targeted for sanctions, or more sanctions, in the future.

President Donald Trump did not support Caatsa, even though he signed it into law, saying it was "unconstitutional".

Under the law, the list had to be delivered by Monday. 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 top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Eliot Engel, accused the Trump administration of letting "Russia off the hook again" by not taking substantial action.

Who has been named?

Informally known as the "Putin list", the unclassified section has 210 names, 114 of them in the government or linked to it, or key businessmen. The other 96 are oligarchs apparently determined more by the fact they are worth more than $1bn (£710m) than their close ties to the Kremlin.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Congress passed the law in August, although President Donald Trump had opposed it

Most of Mr Putin's longstanding allies are named, many of them siloviki (security guys). They include the spy chiefs Alexander Bortnikov of the Federal Security Service (FSB) - which Mr Putin used to run - and Sergei Naryshkin of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).

The men who control Russia's energy resources are listed: Gazprom chief Alexei Miller, Rosneft chief Igor Sechin and other oil and gas executives, along with top bankers like Bank Rossiya manager Yuri Kovalchuk.

The oligarchs include Kirill Shamalov, who is reported to be Mr Putin's son-in-law, although the Kremlin has never confirmed his marriage to Katerina Tikhonova, nor even that she is the president's daughter.

Internationally known oligarchs are there too, such as those with stakes in top English football clubs: Alisher Usmanov (Arsenal) and Roman Abramovich (Chelsea).

Will they face new sanctions?

Not at the moment. The US Treasury document itself stresses: "It is not a sanctions list, and the inclusion of individuals or entities... does not and in no way should be interpreted to impose sanctions on those individuals or entities."

It adds: "Neither does inclusion on the unclassified list indicate that the US government has information about the individual's involvement in malign activities."

However, there is a classified version said to include information detailing allegations of involvement in corrupt activities.

What does it mean for Russia's elite?

Analysis: Steve Rosenberg, BBC Moscow correspondent

The good news for the Kremlin: this isn't a sanctions list. But the good news ends there.

Those Russian officials and oligarchs named by the US Treasury will worry that their inclusion could signal sanctions in the future.

Even before the list was made public, the Kremlin had claimed the US Treasury report was an attempt to meddle in Russia's presidential election.

The list reads like a Who's Who of the Russian political elite and business world.

Moscow won't want that to become a Who's Sanctioned.

What is the Caatsa act and did the president want it?

The law limited the amount of money Americans could invest in Russian energy projects and made it more difficult for US companies to do business with Russia.

It also imposed sanctions on Iran and North Korea.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption All you need to know about the Trump-Russia investigation

In signing the act, Mr Trump attached a statement calling the measure "deeply flawed" and said he could make "far better deals with foreign countries than Congress".

Earlier on Monday, the US government argued the Caatsa law had already pushed governments around the world to cancel deals with Russia worth billions, suggesting that more sanctions were not required.

How have the Russians reacted?

Perhaps referring to the fact that all of their political representatives had been named, Mr Putin said that, in effect, "all 146 million Russians have been put on the list".

He joked he was offended not to be named himself.

Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who is himself on the list, accepted that it was not one of sanctions but said it could potentially damage "the image and reputation" of figures listed and their associated companies.

He added: "It's not the first day that we live with quite aggressive comments made towards us, so we should not give in to emotions."

When Caatsa was passed, PM Dmitry Medvedev said it meant the US had declared a "full-scale trade war" on Russia.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny praised the publication of the names as "a good list".</s>Image copyright Reuters Image caption Congress passed the law in August, although President Donald Trump had opposed it

The US has published a list of 114 Russian politicians and 96 oligarchs, some close to the president, as part of a sanctions law aimed at punishing Russia for meddling in the US election.

The US stressed those named had not been hit with new sanctions, although some have already been targeted.

Congress passed the sanctions law in August. President Donald Trump signed it while making his reservations clear.

The Kremlin said the list could damage the reputation of those named.

Why has the US published the list?

The government was required to draw up the list after Congress passed the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (Caatsa) in August.

The law aimed to punish Russia for its alleged meddling in the 2016 US elections and its actions in Ukraine.

Congress wanted the list to name and shame those who had benefited from close association with President Vladimir Putin and put them on notice that they could be targeted for sanctions, or more sanctions, in the future.

Who has been named?

Informally known as the "Putin list", the unclassified section has 210 names, 114 of them in the government or linked to it, or key businessmen. The other 96 are oligarchs apparently determined more by the fact they are worth more than $1bn (£710m) than their close ties to the Kremlin.

Image copyright PA/EPA Image caption Roman Abramovich (L) and Dmitry Medvedev are on the list

Most of Mr Putin's longstanding allies are named, many of them siloviki (security guys). They include the spy chiefs Alexander Bortnikov of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and Sergei Naryshkin of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). Mr Putin used to run the FSB.

The men who control Russia's energy resources are there: Gazprom chief Alexei Miller, Rosneft chief Igor Sechin and other oil and gas executives, along with top bankers like Bank Rossiya manager Yuri Kovalchuk.

The oligarchs include Kirill Shamalov, who is reported to be Mr Putin's son-in-law, although the Kremlin has never confirmed his marriage to Katerina Tikhonova, nor even that she is the president's daughter.

Internationally known oligarchs are there too, such as those with stakes in top English football clubs: Alisher Usmanov (Arsenal) and Roman Abramovich (Chelsea).

Will they face new sanctions?

Not at the moment. The US Treasury document itself stresses: "It is not a sanctions list, and the inclusion of individuals or entities... does not and in no way should be interpreted to impose sanctions on those individuals or entities."

It adds: "Neither does inclusion on the unclassified list indicate that the US Government has information about the individual's involvement in malign activities."

However, there is a classified version said to include information detailing allegations of involvement in corrupt activities.

What does it mean for Russia's elite?

Analysis: Steve Rosenberg, BBC Moscow correspondent

The good news for the Kremlin: this isn't a sanctions list. But the good news ends there.

Those Russian officials and oligarchs named by the US Treasury will worry their inclusion could signal sanctions in the future.

Even before the list was made public, the Kremlin had claimed the US Treasury report was an attempt to meddle in Russia's presidential election.

The list reads like a Who's Who of the Russian political elite and business world.

Moscow won't want that to become a Who's Sanctioned.

What is the Caatsa act and did the president want it?

The law limited the amount of money Americans could invest in Russian energy projects and made it more difficult for US companies to do business with Russia.

It also imposed sanctions on Iran and North Korea.

In signing the act, Mr Trump attached a statement calling the measure "deeply flawed".

"As president, I can make far better deals with foreign countries than Congress," he said.

Under Caatsa, the list of names had to be delivered by Monday. 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.

Earlier in the day, the US government argued the Caatsa law had already pushed governments around the world to cancel deals with Russia worth billions, suggesting that more sanctions were not required.

"From that perspective, if the law is working, sanctions on specific entities or individuals will not need to be imposed because the legislation is, in fact, serving as a deterrent," state department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

How have the Russians reacted?

When Caatsa was passed, Mr Medvedev said it meant the US had declared a "full-scale trade war" on Russia.

The reaction this time has ranged between deep anger and a more measured approach.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption All you need to know about the Trump-Russia investigation

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who is himself on the list, accepted that it was not one of sanctions but added: "Publication of such a wide list of everything and everyone could potentially damage the image and reputation of our firms, our businessmen, our politicians and of members of the leadership."

He added: "It's not the first day that we live with quite aggressive comments made towards us, so we should not give in to emotions."

Russian lawmaker Vladimir Dzhabarov said the inclusion of almost the entire leadership of the country was a de facto severing of relations.</s>President Vladimir Putin has denounced a list released by the U.S. Treasury Department that identifies prominent Russian officials and business figures as close to him, saying that it is intended as an attack on president Donald Trump.

Late Monday, the U.S. Treasury Department released a report that listed 114 Russian officials and 96 "oligarchs" it deems close to Putin and the Kremlin.

The report was ordered by a law, signed by president Donald Trump last summer, to punish Russia for its alleged meddling in the 2016 election.

Known informally as the "Putin list," it was awaited with mounting interest and intense jitters among Russia’s elite, who feared it would amount to a blacklist and could be grounds for fresh sanctions.

The list, published in the unclassified version of the Treasury report, detailed virtually all of Russia’s government and wealthy elite. The report said that the list "was not a sanctions list" and was not calling for restrictions on doing business with anyone included.

Putin nonetheless attacked the list as "an unfriendly act," telling an audience at an election campaign event that it would "complicate" relations between Russia and the U.S. He also accused those who compiled the list of trying to harm president Donald Trump.

"Those who are doing this, they are mainly doing domestic politics, they are attacking the elected president," Putin said.

Ahead of its publication, the list had provoked alarm among the Russia’s elite. Although Treasury officials had emphasized that the list would not carry any new sanctions, those likely to be listed had worried it might discourage U.S. and other Western banks and other institutions from offering services to them. There were reports of Russian oligarchs scrambling to hire lawyers and seeking advice from former sanctions officials in Washington.

Some had expected the list be a detailed document listing assets, as well as relatives, of key officials and businessmen on whom the Kremlin frequently relies. But the unclassified list was instead a re-publishing of two lists already publicly available.

Reporters in Moscow quickly noted that the Treasury’s unclassified list of "oligarchs" seemed to be identical to last year’s Russian Forbes ranking of the country’s wealthiest people. The Treasury report listed the same 96 individuals with fortunes over $1 billion.

The report’s list of Russian government figures also appeared to have been copy-and-pasted wholesale from the Russian government’s official site, with the names listed in exactly the same, non-alphabetical order.

The publicly released list of oligarchs was in an unclassified version of the Treasury report; the classified version may contain more names, as well as more details, that could be used for sanctions.

The current list contains many of Russia's best-known business figures, long known as close to the Kremlin, including the billionaire Roman Abramovich and the metals magnate Oleg Deripaska.

In Moscow, the list was received with umbrage, but also dismissed by many as meaningless. Konstantin Kosachev, a prominent senator whose statements often tow the government line, wrote on Facebook that the report’s compilers had "simply copied the Kremlin phone book."

A Russian deputy prime minister, Arkady Dvorkovich, told the Interfax news agency that the list resembled a “Who’s Who in Russian politics book”, Interfax reported.

The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that it needed to analyse the list in more detail, noting it could harm the reputation of the business figures on it. But he called for people not to “give into emotions” around it.

Some Russian officials exalted in their naming, saying they would have been disappointed not to be. But some warned the list’s creation though was nonetheless a bad sign for U.S.-Russia relations.

The list also came under attack from critics outside Russia, who said it was so broad as to be meaningless. Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia under the Obama administration, wrote on Twitter that he couldn’t understand the point of the list, writing it was “ridiculously broad & thus meaningless”.

Listing the entire government of Russia was “a joke” he wrote, calling it “sloppy work”.

Anders Aslund, a hawkish academic who has written for years on the workings of the Kremlin elite, also said that the list had “too many” people on it and would instead likely unite those listed around the Kremlin. “This appears counter-productive” he wrote on Twitter.

Alexey Venediktov, the editor of a liberal radio station, Ekho Moskvi, tweeted he could have written the list in 20 minutes.

A top Putin critic, however, Alexey Navalny, who has gained a popular following for his investigations into alleged corruption among the Kremlin elite, praised the list’s publication. While noting some absences, Navalny wrote on Twitter that the list "on the whole reflects the real picture of the world."

Although the Treasury report said that naming individuals on the list did not imply the U.S. possessed any evidence of criminal wrongdoing by those individuals, Navalny referred to them as "crooks."

"There are a lot of crooks ... on this list," Navalny wrote. "We’re glad that they have officially recognized them as crooks and thieves on an international level."

Dmitry Trenin, director of the Moscow Carnegie Center, also noted that the list effectively underlined a message that it was risky to do business with Russia.

"The power of U.S. sanctions is not in the specifics of people or companies blacklisted, but in a simple message: those who want to do deals with Russians might have to deal with the United States," he wrote in a tweet.

On Monday, the Treasury Department declined to impose fresh sanctions linked to Russia, although the same law mandating the oligarch list also required the administration to begin punishing those doing business with sanctioned Russian entities.

A State Department official told reporters on Monday that no new sanctions were likely to be imposted since the law was working as a deterrent.

The U.S. had publicly and privately put foreign governments and companies "on notice" that they risked sanctions if they breached restrictions already imposed on Russian organizations, the official said.</s>MOSCOW — A long-awaited U.S. list of Russian businessmen and officials who have flourished under Vladimir Putin’s presidency appears to be mainly a list of people in Russian government, along with 96 “oligarchs” from a Forbes magazine ranking of Russian billionaires.

The list, ordered by Congress in response to Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign, had induced fear among rich Russians that it could lead to U.S. sanctions or being informally blacklisted in the global financial system.

But the U.S. surprised observers by announcing that it had decided not to punish anybody under the new sanctions, at least for now. Some U.S. lawmakers accused President Donald Trump of giving Russia a free pass, fueling further questions about whether the president is unwilling to confront Moscow.

Russia hawks in Congress had pushed the administration to include certain names, while Russian businessmen hired lobbyists to keep them off.

In the end, the list of 114 Russian politicians released just before a Monday evening deadline included the whole of Putin’s administration, as listed by the Kremlin on its website, plus the Russian cabinet, all top law enforcement officials and chief executives of the main state-controlled companies.

A companion list of 96 “oligarchs” is a carbon copy of the Forbes magazine’s Russian billionaires’ rankings, only arranged alphabetically. It makes no distinction between those who are tied to the Kremlin and those who are not. Some of the people on the list have long fallen out with the Kremlin or are widely considered to have built their fortunes independently of the Russian government.

Officials said more names, including those of less-senior politicians and businesspeople worth less than $1 billion, are on a classified version of the list being provided to Congress. Drawing on U.S. intelligence, the Treasury Department also finalized a list of at least partially state-owned companies in Russia, but that list, too, was classified and sent only to Congress.

The idea of the seven-page unclassified document, as envisioned by Congress, was to name-and-shame those believed to be benefiting from Putin’s tenure, as the United States works to isolate his government diplomatically and economically.

Every top Russian official except for Putin is on the list of 114 senior political figures. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is on it, along with all ministers from the Russian government, all 42 of Putin’s aides, and top law enforcement officials. The CEOs of all major state-owned companies, including energy giant Rosneft and Sberbank, are also on the list.

The oligarchs list includes tycoons Roman Abramovich and Mikhail Prokhorov, who challenged Putin in the 2012 election. Aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, a figure in the Russia investigation over his ties to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, is included.

Less obvious names on the list include Sergei Galitsky, founder of retail chain Magnit, and Arkady Volozh, founder and CEO of the search engine Yandex, and bankers Oleg Tinkov and Ruben Vardanyan. They have been lauded as self-made men who built their successful businesses without any government support.

Some billionaires on the list have fallen out with the Kremlin entirely, like the Ananyev brothers, who fled the country last year and vowed to sue the Russian government after their bank was declared bankrupt.

The publication of the so-called “Putin list” angered and dismayed many in Moscow.

The list shows that the United States views the entire Russian government as enemies, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov — himself on the list — told reporters on Tuesday.

Although he said Russia should not “give in to emotions” before studying the list and its implications carefully, Peskov pointed out the name of the law: “On countering America’s adversaries through sanctions.”

“De facto everyone has been called an adversary of the United States,” he said.

The Kremlin also indicated that it didn’t view the U.S. administration’s announcement that it would not impose any new sanctions on Russia for now as any sort of reassurance. Peskov said administration did say new restrictions might still be imposed later.

In a Facebook post Tuesday, Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the foreign affairs committee for the Federation Council, the upper chamber of Russian parliament, said U.S. intelligence failed to find compromising material on Russian politicians and “ended up copying the Kremlin phone book.”

Kosachev criticized the U.S. government for harming Russia-U.S. relations, saying that “the consequences will be toxic and undermine prospects for cooperation for years ahead,” adding that the list displays “political paranoia” of the U.S. establishment.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who came to prominence thanks to his investigations into official corruption, tweeted on Tuesday that he was “glad that these (people) have been officially recognized on the international level as crooks and thieves.” Navalny in his investigations has exposed what he described as close ties between government officials and some of the billionaires on the list.

The list’s release was likely to at least partially defuse the disappointment from some U.S. lawmakers that Trump’s administration opted against targeting anyone with new Russia sanctions that took effect Monday.

Under the same law that authorized the “Putin list,” the government was required to slap sanctions on anyone doing “significant” business with people linked to Russia’s defense and intelligence agencies, using a blacklist the U.S. released in October. But the administration decided it didn’t need to penalize anyone, even though several countries have had multibillion-dollar arms deals with Russia in the works.

State Department officials said the threat of sanctions had been deterrent enough, and that “sanctions on specific entities or individuals will not need to be imposed.”

Companies or foreign governments that had been doing business with blacklisted Russian entities had been given a three-month grace period to extricate themselves from transactions, starting in October when the blacklist was published and ending Monday. But only those engaged in “significant transactions” are to be punished, and the United States has never defined that term or given a dollar figure. That ambiguity has made it impossible for the public to know exactly what is and isn’t permissible.

New York Rep. Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, lambasted the move to punish no one, saying he was “fed up” and that Trump’s administration had chosen to “let Russia off the hook yet again.” He dismissed the State Department’s claim that “the mere threat of sanctions” would stop Moscow from further meddling in America’s elections.

“How do you deter an attack that happened two years ago, and another that’s already underway?” Engel said. “It just doesn’t make sense.”</s>The Latest on the Trump administration and Russia sanctions (all times local):

Russian President Vladimir Putin says the Trump administration's list of top officials and businesspeople is a "hostile step" that harms relations between Russia and the United States.

Just 12 minutes before the deadline, the administration late on Monday released a long-awaited list of 114 Russian politicians and 96 "oligarchs" who have flourished under Putin, fulfilling a demand by Congress that the U.S. punish Moscow for interfering in the 2016 U.S. election.

The section on political leaders includes the entire Kremlin administration and the Cabinet as well as other top officials.

Speaking at a campaign event in Moscow, Putin, who is running for president at the March election, joked on Tuesday that he felt "slighted" that he himself was not on the list.

Putin described the list as a "hostile step" but said Moscow does not want to make the situation worse and is eager to "develop the relations as much as our American counterparts are willing to."

The chairwoman of the upper chamber of the Russian parliament says Monday's publication of the list of Russian officials and businessmen as part of a U.S. law on sanctions against Russia is an attempt to influence Russia's upcoming presidential vote.

The Trump administration late on Monday published a long-anticipated list of top Russian officials and "oligarchs" who have flourished under President Vladimir Putin. The 114-strong political list is the entire presidential administration and the Russian Cabinet, while the list of 96 "oligarchs" is an exact copy of the Forbes magazine's Russian billionaires' rankings.

Valentina Matvienko, who chairs the Federation Council and whose name is also on the list, told Russian news agencies on Tuesday that the publication is "nothing but meddling into the electoral process" which seeks to "lower the support for the president."

Russians are going to the polls on March 18, and Putin is expected to win by a landslide.

The Kremlin says Monday's publication of the U.S. list of Russian officials and businessmen as part of a sanctions law shows that the United States views the entire Russian government as enemies.

The Trump administration late Monday released a long-awaited list of 114 Russian politicians and 96 "oligarchs" who have flourished under President Vladimir Putin, fulfilling a demand by Congress that the U.S. punish Moscow for interfering in the 2016 U.S. election.

Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, told reporters on Tuesday that Moscow would like to take time to analyze the list which he described as "unprecedented" in its scope. Peskov said Russia has yet to understand how individuals on the list, their activities and reputation abroad might be affected.

Although he said Russia should not "give in to emotions" before studying the list and its implications carefully, Peskov pointed out to the name of the law: "On countering America's adversaries through sanctions."

"De-facto everyone has been called an adversary of the United States," he said.

Peskov, as a member of the Kremlin administration, is on the list.

The Kremlin also indicated that it didn't view the U.S. administration's announcement that it would not impose any new sanctions on Russia for now as any sort of reassurance. Peskov said the Kremlin noted that new sanctions might still be imposed later.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has lauded the Trump administration's list of Russian oligarchs and politicians as a "good list."

The list released late on Monday was required by a sanctions law, adopted last year against Russia for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. Although it does not trigger any U.S. sanctions against the individuals, the very preparations for listing the Russian oligarchs has sent chills across the Russian business community and political elite in the past months.

Navalny, who came to prominence thanks to his investigations into official corruption, tweeted on Tuesday that he was "glad that these (people) have been officially recognized on the international level as crooks and thieves." Navalny in his investigations has exposed what he described as close ties between government officials and some of the billionaires on the list.

He questioned, however, why some Russian businessmen with no apparent ties to the government were put on the list, including Sergei Galitsky, founder of retail chain Magnit, and Arkady Volozh, founder and CEO of the search engine Yandex. Both have been lauded as self-made men who built their successful businesses without any government support.

A Russian businessman who is on the Trump administration's list of Russian politicians and businessmen, released as part of a U.S. law aimed at punishing Russia for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, says he will nevertheless advocate for better ties with the West.

Boris Titov, presidential ombudsman for business, is on the list along with two other Russian presidential envoys for human rights.

Titov, who is also running for Russian president in the March election, said he was surprised to find his name on the list: "We are working to protect people from authorities."

Titov said he would keep doing his job, "part of which is to improve relations with the West."

A senior Russian lawmaker has described the Trump administration's list of politicians and business figures released late on Monday as "political paranoia which, it turns out, is very hard to cure."

In a Facebook post Tuesday, Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the Federation Council's foreign affairs committee, said U.S. intelligence failed to find compromising material on Russian politicians and "ended up copying the Kremlin phone book."

Kosachev criticized the U.S. government for harming Russia-U.S. relations, saying that "the consequences will be toxic and undermine prospects for cooperation for years ahead."

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich has dismissed the Trump administration's list of Russian politicians and businessmen as simply a "who's who" of Russian politics.

The list released by the Trump administration late on Monday includes 114 political figures and 96 people the U.S. Treasury deems to be "oligarchs." The list, required by a law passed by Congress last year to punish Russia for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, does not trigger any U.S. sanctions targeting the individuals.

Dvorkovich told Russian news agencies on Tuesday that he was not surprised to find his name on the list, too, saying that it "looks like a 'who's who' book." Dvorkovich stopped short of saying how Russia would react to it, saying that the government would "monitor the situation."

The Trump administration has released its highly anticipated list of Russian politicians and business figures in an attempt to increase pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The list includes 114 individuals deemed by the Treasury Department to be senior Russian political figures. It also includes 96 people deemed to be "oligarchs." The Treasury says each has an estimated net worth of $1 billion or more.

The list was required by a law passed by Congress last year to punish Russia for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. The Trump administration had until Monday to release the list, aimed at exposing those who have gained wealth or power through association with Putin. It's been informally referred to as the "Putin list."

The list does not trigger any U.S. sanctions targeting the individuals.

The Trump administration has notified Congress that it will not impose new sanctions on Russia at this time.

The State Department says it's confident that new legislation enacted last year is significantly deterring Russian defense sales.

Spokeswoman Heather Nauert estimates foreign governments have abandoned several billion dollars in planned or announced Russian purchases.

The decision comes amid ongoing concerns from critics of the president that his administration has been too soft on Russia. Investigations continue into Moscow's efforts to influence the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win.

The Treasury Department was expected to release another list of businessmen who have grown rich under Russian President Vladimir Putin, but the day came and went with no word. The Treasury Department did not respond to multiple inquiries Monday about the list.</s>Russian president Vladimir Putin has called a long-awaited US list of Russian businessmen and officials who have flourished under his presidency a "hostile step" that harms relations between Moscow and Washington.

The Trump administration's so-called Putin List featured 114 Russian politicians and 96 "oligarchs", fulfilling a demand by Congress that the US should punish Moscow for interfering in the 2016 US election.

The section on political leaders includes the entire Kremlin administration and the cabinet, as well as other top officials.

Speaking in Moscow, Mr Putin, who is running for president at the March election, joked that he felt "slighted" that he himself was not on the list.

Despite calling it a "hostile step", Mr Putin said Moscow does not want to make the situation worse, and is eager to "develop the relations as much as our American counterparts are willing to".

The list had led to fears among rich Russians that it could lead to US sanctions, or being informally blacklisted in the global financial system.

However, the US surprised observers by announcing that it had decided not to punish anyone under the new sanctions, at least for now. Some US representatives have accused President Donald Trump of giving Russia a free pass, fuelling further questions about whether the president is unwilling to confront Moscow.

Russia hawks in Congress had pushed the administration to include certain names, while Russian businessmen hired lobbyists to keep them off.

In the end, the list of 114 Russian politicians released just before a Monday evening deadline included the whole of Mr Putin's administration, as listed by the Kremlin on its website, plus the Russian cabinet, all top law enforcement officials and chief executives of the main state-controlled companies.

A companion list of 96 "oligarchs" is a carbon copy of the Forbes magazine's Russian billionaires' rankings, only arranged alphabetically. It makes no distinction between those who are tied to the Kremlin and those who are not. Some of the people on the list have long fallen out with the Kremlin or are widely considered to have built their fortunes independently of the Russian government.

The idea of the seven-page unclassified document, as envisioned by Congress, was to name-and-shame those believed to be benefiting from Mr Putin's tenure, as the United States works to isolate his government diplomatically and economically.

Every top Russian official except for Mr Putin is on the list of 114 senior political figures. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is on it, along with all ministers from the Russian government, all 42 of Putin's advisers, and top law enforcement officials. The CEOs of all major state-owned companies, including energy giant Rosneft and Sberbank, are also on the list.

The oligarchs list includes tycoons Roman Abramovich and Mikhail Prokhorov, who challenged Putin in the 2012 election. Aluminium magnate Oleg Deripaska, a figure in the Russia investigation over his ties to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, is included.

Less obvious names on the list include Sergei Galitsky, founder of retail chain Magnit, and Arkady Volozh, founder and CEO of the search engine Yandex, and bankers Oleg Tinkov and Ruben Vardanyan. They have been lauded as self-made men who built their successful businesses without any government support.

The list shows that the United States views the entire Russian government as enemies, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov - himself on the list - told reporters.</s>MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday the release of a U.S. list of Russian businessmen close to the Kremlin was an unfriendly act, but Moscow did not currently plan to retaliate.

The U.S. Treasury Department named major Russian businessmen in a so-called “oligarchs’ list” which was released earlier on Tuesday.

The list, drawn up as part of a sanctions package signed into law in August last year, does not mean those included will be subject to sanctions, but it casts a potential shadow of sanctions risk over a wide circle of wealthy Russians.

“It is, of course, an unfriendly act. It will complicate the difficult situation Russian-American relations are already in, and of course harm international relations as a whole,” Putin said.

Speaking at meeting with election campaign officials in Moscow, Putin said it was “stupid” to treat Russian in the same way as North Korea and Iran, while also asking Moscow to help broker a peace deal on the Korean peninsula.

But the Russian leader said he still wanted to improve ties with the United States and would refrain from any immediate retaliation.

“We were waiting for this list, and I will not hide it, were ready to take retaliatory steps, serious ones, which would have reduced our relations to zero,” Putin said.

“For now, we will refrain from these steps. But we will carefully watch how the situation develops.”</s>Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday the Trump administration has taken a "hostile step" by publishing a long-awaited list of 114 politicians and 96 oligarchs who have flourished under his reign.

The list was ordered by Congress as part of a retaliation over alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election, but the White House surprised observers by announcing that it had decided not to impose sanctions on any of the named individuals for now.

Some lawmakers accused President Donald Trump of giving Russia a free pass. Putin himself even joked that he felt "slighted" that his name wasn't there.

"What is the point of this? I don't understand,” Putin said in Moscow, expressing dismay at the scope of the officials and business people listed.

"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," he said.

"We were waiting for this list to come out, and I'm not going to hide it: we were going to take steps in response … serious steps, that could push our relations to the nadir,” Putin said. “But we're going to refrain from taking these steps for now.”

Related: House panel votes to release memo on FBI eavesdropping in Russia probe

The idea behind the list was to name-and-shame those believed to be benefiting from Putin's tenure just as the U.S. works to isolate his government diplomatically and economically. The Trump administration had until Monday to publish it; the Treasury Department released it with little fanfare 12 minutes before midnight.

The political roll call is a who's who of Kremlin-connected Russians in the country's elite class, while the list of oligarchs is a carbon copy of the Forbes magazine's Russian billionaires' rankings, only arranged alphabetically. It makes no distinction between those who are tied to the Kremlin and those who are not. Some of the people on the list have long fallen out with the Kremlin or are widely considered to have built their fortunes independently of the Russian government.

Officials said more names, including those of less senior politicians and businesspeople worth less than $1 billion, are on a classified version of the list being provided to Congress.

Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the foreign affairs committee for the upper chamber of Russian parliament, said Tuesday that U.S. intelligence failed to find compromising material on Russian politicians and "ended up copying the Kremlin phone book."

Under the same law that authorized the "Putin list," the government was required to slap sanctions on anyone doing "significant" business with people linked to Russia's defense and intelligence agencies, using a blacklist the U.S. released in October. But the administration decided it didn't need to penalize anyone, even though several countries have had multibillion-dollar arms deals with Russia in the works.

State Department officials said the threat of sanctions had been deterrent enough, and that "sanctions on specific entities or individuals will not need to be imposed."

New York Rep. Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he was "fed up" and that Trump's administration had chosen to "let Russia off the hook yet again."</s>The Trump administration late Monday released a long-awaited list of 114 Russian politicians and 96 oligarchs who have flourished under President Vladimir Putin, fulfilling a demand by Congress that the U.S. punish Moscow for interfering in the 2016 U.S. election.

The political list is the entire presidential administration, as listed on the Kremlin website, and the Russian Cabinet, while the oligarchs list is a carbon copy of the top of the Forbes magazine’s Russian billionaires’ list. The publication of the so-called “Putin list” angered and dismayed many in Moscow.

Yet the administration paired that move with a surprising announcement that it had decided not to punish anybody — for now — under new sanctions retaliating for the election-meddling. Some U.S. lawmakers accused President Donald Trump of giving Russia a free pass, fueling further questions about whether the president is unwilling to confront Moscow.

The idea of the seven-page unclassified document, as envisioned by Congress, is to name-and-shame those believed to be benefiting from Putin’s tenure, just as the United States works to isolate his government diplomatically and economically.

Being on the list doesn’t trigger any U.S. sanctions on the individuals, although more than a dozen are already targeted under earlier sanctions.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is among the 114 senior political figures in Russia’s government who made the list, along with 42 of Putin’s aides, Cabinet ministers such as Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and top officials in Russia’s leading spy agencies, the FSB and GRU. The CEOs of major state-owned companies, including energy giant Rosneft and Sberbank, are also on the list.

So are 96 wealthy Russians deemed “oligarchs” by the Treasury Department, which said each is believed to have assets totaling $1 billion or more. Some are the most famous of wealthy Russians, among them tycoons Roman Abramovich and Mikhail Prokhorov, who challenged Putin in the 2012 election. Aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, a figure in the Russia investigation over his ties to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, is included.

There are also odd ones out on the list, however, such as Sergei Galitsky, founder of retail chain Magnit, and Arkady Volozh, founder and CEO of the search engine Yandex. Both have been lauded as self-made men who built their successful businesses without any government support.

Even more names, including those of less-senior politicians or business people worth less than $1 billion, are on a classified version of the list being provided to Congress, officials said. Drawing on U.S. intelligence, the Treasury also finalized a list of at least partially state-owned companies in Russia, but that list, too, was classified and sent only to Congress.

Russian politicians have expressed dismay at finding that the list included the entire Russian government.

Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich told Russian news agencies on Tuesday that he was not surprised to find his name on the list, too, saying that it “looks like a ‘who’s who’ book.” Dvorkovich stopped short of saying how Russia would react to it, saying that the government would “monitor the situation.”

In a social media post Tuesday, Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the Federation Council’s foreign affairs committee, said U.S. intelligence failed to find compromising material on Russian politicians and “ended up copying the Kremlin phone book.”

Kosachev criticized the U.S. government for harming Russia-U.S. relations, saying that “the consequences will be toxic and undermine prospects for cooperation for years ahead,” adding that the list displays “political paranoia” of the U.S. establishment.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who came to prominence thanks to his investigations into official corruption, tweeted on Tuesday that he was “glad that these [people] have been officially recognized on the international level as crooks and thieves.” Navalny in his investigations has exposed what he described as close ties between government officials and some of the billionaires on the list.

In the works for months, the list has induced fear among rich Russians who are concerned that it could lead to U.S. sanctions or to being informally blacklisted in the global financial system. 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.

The list’s release was likely to at least partially defuse the disappointment from some lawmakers that Trump’s administration opted against targeting anyone with new Russia sanctions that took effect Monday.

Under the same law that authorized the “Putin list,” the government was required to slap sanctions on anyone doing “significant” business with people linked to Russia’s defense and intelligence agencies, using a blacklist the U.S. released in October. But the administration decided it didn’t need to penalize anyone, even though several countries have had multibillion-dollar arms deals with Russia in the works.

State Department officials said the threat of sanctions had been deterrent enough, and that “sanctions on specific entities or individuals will not need to be imposed.”

“We estimate that foreign governments have abandoned planned or announced purchases of several billion dollars in Russian defense acquisitions,” said State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert. She did not provide evidence or cite any examples.

Companies or foreign governments that had been doing business with blacklisted Russian entities had been given a three-month grace period to extricate themselves from transactions, starting in October when the blacklist was published and ending Monday. But only those engaged in “significant transactions” are to be punished, and the United States has never defined that term or given a dollar figure. That ambiguity has made it impossible for the public to know exactly what is and isn’t permissible.</s>The Trump administration late Monday released a long-awaited list of 114 Russian politicians and 96 "oligarchs" who have flourished during the reign of President Vladimir Putin, fulfilling a demand by Congress that the U.S. punish Moscow for interfering in the 2016 U.S. election.

Yet the administration paired that move with a surprising announcement that it had decided not to punish anybody — for now — under new sanctions retaliating for the election-meddling. Some U.S. lawmakers accused President Donald Trump of giving Russia a free pass, fueling further questions about whether the president is unwilling to confront America's Cold War foe.

Known informally as the "Putin list," the seven-page unclassified document is a who's who of politically connected Russians in the country's elite class. The idea, as envisioned by Congress, is to name-and-shame those believed to be benefiting from Putin's tenure just as the United States works to isolate his government diplomatically and economically.

Being on the list doesn't trigger any U.S. sanctions on the individuals, although more than a dozen are already targeted under earlier sanctions.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is among the 114 senior political figures in Russia's government who made the list, along with 42 of Putin's aides, Cabinet ministers such as Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and top officials in Russia's leading spy agencies, the FSB and GRU. The CEOs of major state-owned companies, including energy giant Rosneft and Sberbank, are also on the list.

So are 96 wealthy Russians deemed "oligarchs" by the Treasury Department, which said each is believed to have assets totaling $1 billion or more. Some are the most famous of wealthy Russians, among them tycoons Roman Abramovich and Mikhail Prokhorov, who challenged Putin in the 2012 election. Aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, a figure in the Russia investigation over his ties to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, is included.

The Trump administration had until Monday to issue the list under a law passed last year. After declining to answer questions about it throughout the day Monday, the Treasury Department released it with little fanfare 12 minutes before midnight.

Even more names, including those of less-senior politicians or businesspeople worth less than $1 billion, are on a classified version of the list being provided to Congress, officials said. Drawing on U.S. intelligence, Treasury also finalized a list of at least partially state-owned companies in Russia, but that list, too, was classified and sent only to Congress.

There was no immediate comment early Tuesday from the Kremlin or the Russian Embassy in Washington.

In the works for months, the list has induced fear among rich Russians who are concerned that it could lead to U.S. sanctions or to being informally blacklisted in the global financial system. 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.

The list's release was likely to at least partially diffuse the disappointment from some lawmakers that Trump's administration opted against targeting anyone with new Russia sanctions that took effect Monday.

Under the same law that authorized the "Putin list," the government was required to slap sanctions on anyone doing "significant" business with people linked to Russia's defense and intelligence agencies, using a blacklist the U.S. released in October. But the administration decided it didn't need to penalize anyone, even though several countries have had multibillion-dollar arms deals with Russia in the works.

State Department officials said the threat of sanctions had been deterrent enough, and that "sanctions on specific entities or individuals will not need to be imposed."

"We estimate that foreign governments have abandoned planned or announced purchases of several billion dollars in Russian defense acquisitions," said State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert. She did not provide evidence or cite any examples.

Companies or foreign governments that had been doing business with blacklisted Russian entities had been given a three-month grace period to extricate themselves from transactions, starting in October when the blacklist was published and ending Monday. But only those engaged in "significant transactions" are to be punished, and the United States has never defined that term or given a dollar figure. That ambiguity has made it impossible for the public to know exactly what is and isn't permissible.

Late last year, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said one reason the U.S. was proceeding cautiously was that major U.S. allies have much at stake. Turkey, a NATO ally, has a deal to buy the S-400, Russia's most advanced air defense missile system. And key security partner Saudi Arabia recently struck an array of deals with Moscow, including contracts for weapons. It was unclear whether either country had since abandoned those deals to avoid running afoul of the U.S. sanctions.

New York Rep. Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, lambasted the move to punish no one, saying he was "fed up" and that Trump's administration had chosen to "let Russia off the hook yet again." He dismissed the State Department's claim that "the mere threat of sanctions" would stop Moscow from further meddling in America's elections.

"How do you deter an attack that happened two years ago, and another that's already underway?" Engel said. "It just doesn't make sense."

Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report.
Reports surface about the publication on January 29 by the United States of a list of Russian politicians and oligarchs that the U.S. government was required by CAATSA to draw up. Russian President Vladimir Putin says that the list, on which he is not included, is an "unfriendly act" that complicates ties between the two countries.