For the international business community, the release of the US Treasury’s ‘Kremlin List’ is comparable to the opening of the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, a senior Russian MP alleged.
"Sanctions are a garrote for international business, including European business,” the chair of the State Duma Committee on Security, Irina Yarovaya, believes.
The US is just “introducing a system, whose purpose is not hidden. It is the system of restraining others and of advantages for only one country. America opens an ‘economic Guantanamo’ for global business,” Yarovaya, a United Russia MP, told reporters on Tuesday.
According to the lawmaker, the US list should be evaluated through the prism of “intentionally criminal and unscrupulous logic.”
The mere fact that it is called the ‘Kremlin List’ automatically reveals the true goal behind it: to intervene in the upcoming presidential election campaign, Yarovaya believes.
“American-style globalization has become a trap for the entire world. Therefore, the only possible way to be for Russia and all other countries is sovereignty and a multipolar balance as their insurance and guarantee for security, partnership and a fair competition,” she said.
Russia, Yarovaya says, is already capable of preserving its economic, political and social stability regardless of the anti-Russian sanctions. However, “other states should understand that if US politicians consider it possible to blackmail Russia, then they [other countries] have only one chance for sovereignty. [That is] to stop following Washington’s lists and directions.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier on Tuesday that he also considers the US Treasury’s list an attempt to influence the presidential election in Russia.
"We really believe that this is a direct and obvious attempt to arrange some actions for the elections in such a way as to influence them," Peskov told journalists.
The US Treasury’s list revolves around 114 Russian political figures, including Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Dmitry Peskov himself.
It also features Russian tycoons Alisher Usmanov and Roman Abramovich, along with 96 other leading businessmen – from the heads of the biggest banks to the heads of major transport companies.