By Igor Bosilkovski and Carter CoudrietOn Monday, President Trump’s Treasury Department released a list of prominent Russian political figures and business leaders who have prospered while Vladimir Putin has led Russia. Forbes went through the lists and confirmed that indeed the Treasury Department’s list is an exact replica of the Russians on the 2017 billionaires list. In an emailed statement to Forbes, a Treasury spokesperson explained that the unclassified report was derived from open sources, including Forbes and others. “There is not a statutory or regulatory definition of oligarch, so Treasury included the $1 billion threshold as a reasonable number, which is similar to criteria contained in the U.S. Forbes list,” the spokesperson said. My comments on the list published by U.S. Treasury Department:1) It’s not a sanctions list, people on it aren’t subject to further restrictions.

Source: Forbes January 30, 2018 21:44 UTC