NEWSWATCH: “Putin in the Boot; New sanctions are about to bite, and Russia’s elite are spooked; The personal sanctions against regime cronies are especially tough” – The Economist

November 25, 2017 JRL Russia List Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, Europe, EU, JRL NewsBlog, Sanctions, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

File Photo of Kremlin Tower, St. Basil's, Red Square at Night

“… CAATSA moderately increases the pressure …. It extends the restrictions on investing in new Russian oil and gas projects to the operations of Russian firms in third countries. … the effectiveness of these new sanctions, which the administration is allowed to pause until late January, is undermined by the fact that European firms have been ring-fenced from their effects. Gazprom … has also been excluded from the sanctions lists, as is Nord Stream 2 …. * * * the personal sanctions … worry the Russian elite most. … American officials can go after anyone, in any country, with significant business dealings with … ‘specially designated nationals’ (SDNs) … already under sanctions – such as Igor Sechin … and Gennady Timchenko … this could make some of … Putin’s closest allies and cronies as toxic as other SDNs in Hizbullah, Iran or North Korea. …. CAATSA [also] requires the administration to submit a report to Congress identifying Russian oligarchs and senior foreign-policy officials with close ties to … Putin and his inner circle. …”