Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov calls his entry on 'Kremlin list' 'ridiculous'
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described the inclusion of his person in the so-called Kremlin list as "ridiculous". He spoke about this in an interview with the program Political Actors with Nailya Asker-Zade on the TV channel Russia 1.
When asked about what the US authorities wanted to achieve, Lavrov replied that he was "completely indifferent as to what is happening now concerning the Kremlin report." According to him, it was possible "in half an hour…to compile the names of [Russian officials] from the Russian government and Presidential Executive Office Phone Directories, as well as from Forbes magazine."
The Minister confessed: "When it all began, I had a very bad feeling. I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears, considering that I am personally acquainted with many officials from the Washington administration and Congress. They are serious, smart and reasonable people.” “Therefore, I was shocked to see that this mass psychosis has swept their rationality clean," Lavrov stressed.
On January 30, the US Treasury Department published the so-called “Kremlin list”, composed of 210 people, including members of the Russian government led by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as well as heads of state corporations and businessmen from the Russian Forbes list. Later on, the department admitted that it had used data from open sources, including the Russian version of Forbes and the site of the Russian president, to compile the Kremlin report.
Andrey Kostin, Chairman of the Board of VTB Bank, said that the "Kremlin list" is a "prelude" to new anti-Russian sanctions. Vagit Alekperov, President of LUKOIL, called the "fact of existence of the list" "negative" and stated that its publication had already affected Russian business. The impact of the report on Russian business was also confirmed by the head of the Center for Strategic Research Alexei Kudrin. The Kremlin also agreed with Alekperov's position.