WASHINGTON: US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says he will, “in the near future,” issue new sanctions against wealthy Russians in retaliation for Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.
“We are actively working on those sanctions,” Mnuchin told the Senate Finance Committee during a hearing on February 14. “You should expect them in the near future.”
Congress overwhelmingly voted for new sanctions on Russian last summer in legislation that was reluctantly signed into law by President Donald Trump, who campaigned on establishing warmer ties with Moscow.
To carry out the law, the Treasury last month released a list of 114 senior Russian political figures and 96 “oligarchs” who it said have gained wealth or power through association with President Vladimir Putin.
Treasury also sent a classified annex to the list to Congress but announced no new sanctions at the time.
Treasury was criticised by US legislators and others for not immediately imposing sanctions on at least some of the listed individuals and for putting together a list that the department admitted was drawn mainly from public sources such as Forbes magazine’s ranking of Russian billionaires.
Mnuchin on January 30 said that new sanctions were being prepared and that the department would issue them “in the next several months, maybe a month.”
