One billionaire businessman in the top 100 of wealthiest Russians spoke to Reuters in person. He said he could not get any clarity from his Russian political contacts about the threat.
Asked what steps he could take to protect himself if he was included on a U.S. sanctions blacklist, he said: “There’s no way. You have to leave.” He did not say where he would go.
Unusually for one of Russia’s billionaire class — a group that presents itself as loyal to the Kremlin — he expressed frustration with senior officials, including Putin.
“The leadership (of the country) does not believe that the sanctions are going to follow the hard scenario,” said the businessman, speaking on condition of anonymity. “They live in a parallel reality. No one wants to listen to business.”
Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesman, told reporters on Thursday that he was not aware of any frustration among the business elite from the new sanctions.
“We know nothing of such views. If they exist and appear, we are always open to discussion,” he said. Asked whether he believed that sanctions were aimed at setting up elites against Putin, Peskov said: “We are confident this is exactly the case.”
The Aug. 2 sanctions legislation expanded and toughened sanctions already in force since over Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region.
“The law is very bad, it’s very broad, very incoherent, its application could have all sorts of consequences,” Andrei Kostin, chief executive of VTB Russia’s second biggest bank, said this week, referring to the legislation as a whole.
The list, to be drawn up by the Treasury Department, is set to name the most significant Russianoligarchs “as determined by their closeness to the Russian regime and their net worth”.
It is meant to be sent to Congress by the end of January, weeks before Russia is due to vote in a presidential election. Though he has not declared his intentions yet, most Kremlin-watchers expect Putin to run and polls show he would easily win.
