Kremlin reaction on 'Kremlin list'

The 'Kremlin list' released today by the U.S. Treasury Department is an unfriendly act, which harms Russia-US relations, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with his electioneering agents representing him in the presidential election race.

"Certainly, this is an unfriendly act. It aggravates the already grave condition of Russian-US relations and certainly harms international relations in general," Putin said, adding that the 'Kremlin list' harms international relations in general.

The President called for ignoring the US Kremlin report, as ‘barking dog cannot hinder caravan’s journey’.

"What I have to say on this matter - not on the list but on the matter as a whole - we need to think about ourselves more, address our economic issues, agricultural ones in particular, we also need to support our exports, healthcare and education, and boost our defense capabilities," Putin said. According to him, "then they will realize that there is no sense in drawing up any lists and trying to hamper our development." "This is the main thing that we need to remember, because as they say, ‘a barking dog cannot hinder a caravan’s journey’," the Russian president added.

"The whole presidential staff, the government and all businesses [were included in the US Kremlin list]. Behind each of these persons and organizations there are ordinary citizens of our country, labor staffs and whole industries. As a matter of fact all of us were put on some list. I cannot see what the meaning of such actions is," TASS cited Putin as saying.

Russia will refrain now from any tit-for-tat steps in response to the list, Putin said. "We expected this list and I won’t hide that we were ready to take tit-for-tat steps, rather serious ones, which could reduce our relations to zero. But we will refrain from these steps now," the President stressed.

"But we will carefully watch how the situation develops as there is also a classified list there, and they say there are more names with an asterisk. We should look into this and how this will all happen," Putin added.

"This is total nonsense to reduce our relations to zero," Putin pointed out.

The President of the National Strategy Institute, Mikhail Remizov, speaking with the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that the announcement of Russia's political leadership and business elite as toxic persons, against which sanctions can be applied at any time, means further degradation of Russian-US relations. "Now the Kremlin report will serve as a benchmark not only for Americans but also for their allies in Eastern Europe. That is, current relations with the US will be spoiled for a long time. At the same time, the list is very formal - people were classified as "bad guys," according to their positions and wealth. It looks like a soft sabotage, the  U.S. Treasury Department fulfilled the president's task carelessly," he pointed out.

"Nevertheless, this is very bad for the Russian leadership and the elite, since the Kremlin list is an attempt to present both the leadership of Russia as toxic players and the country as a toxic asset in order to create a certain exclusion zone around Russia, when partners think hundred times before signing possible contacts, where the price of agreements grows simply because of the risk of falling under the US sanctions," Mikhail Remizov predicts.

The expert stressed that the "Kremlin report" in this regard is primarily aimed at geo-economic containment of Russia. "Of course, there is an internal political factor, but it is not the main one. The main thing is that Russia is the object of severe geo-economic pressure, in fact, a geo-economic war. One of the tactical features of this war is that the entire amount of sanctions is not applied immediately," the President of the National Strategy Institute summarized.