State Dept. finally releases list of off-limits Russians

Ex-NATO chief says President Putin ‘must be laughing right now’

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration gave Congress on Thursday a list of Russian officials who may soon be offlimits to anyone who wants to avoid U.S. sanctions, as criticism mounted over the administration’s tardy execution of new penalties on Moscow.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former NATO chief and adviser to Ukraine’s leader, said Russian President Vladimir Putin “must be laughing” at how successfully he’s undermined Western democracy. He said the lack of answers from the administration would be seen as weakness that Putin would exploit.

“He’s achieved much more than he could have ever dreamed of when it comes to undermining the credibility of Western democratic institutions,” Rasmussen said in an Associated Press interview. “When he’s watching the ongoing discussion here in Washington, I think it’s unbelievable for him that he could achieve that much for a very modest investment … in interference in the election, or whatever.”

The former prime minister of Denmark, Rasmussen joined Russia critics expressing exasperation that an Oct. 1 deadline came and went without new penalties to punish Russia for interfering in the U.S. election. A law Trump signed in August requires the administration to produce a list of individuals linked to Russia’s defense and intelligence agencies. Anyone who does business with those individuals could then be hit with U.S. sanctions.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson approved the belated list and authorized its release, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.