Free Russia Forum Now has Almost 300 Names on Its ‘Putin List’ of Those Who Should Be Sanctioned

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 18 – The Forum of Free Russia, an émigré organization of the Russian democratic opposition based in Lithuania, has created an open-ended list of Russians who should be subject to sanctions by Western countries. At the present time, it has 296 names on it; but the Forum encourages people to recommend additions to the list. 

            The Forum suggests that this should be the basis for the sanctions regime of all those opposed to what Vladimir Putin is doing both internationally and at home (forumfreerussia.org/main/2019-04-17/forum-svobodnoj-rossii-obyavlyaet-o-zapuske-proekta-spisok-putina-baza-foruma-svobodnoj-rossii/ffr).

            The group says that it has presented the list to American officials and will soon be distributing it to the embassies of other countries.  The Forum’s site contains information on what each of the Russians on the list have done that make them necessary candidates for sanctions.   

            The list is subdivided in the following categories: the ruling group including Putin, Nikolay Patrushev, Ramzan Kadyrov, Igor Sechin and similar officials; the executors consisting of the people who follow the orders of the rulers, law enforcement personnel and judicial officials who repress the opposition, those involved with aggression toward other states, oligarchs and the corrupt, propagandists, facilitators who help the Russian state for their own profit, and all those who seek to benefit from the illegal actions of the other categories.

            Members of the Forum of Free Russia decide who goes on the list by voting on proposed listees. At the upcoming session in June, they will be voting to add more members to the list, one that was first composed by the organization at the end of 2017.