Faces Caught In The Middle Of US-Russia Spat
Updated: 8:45pm UK, Thursday 20 March 2014
The fresh wave of US sanctions against Russia include banning some of the country's richest and most influential businessmen - and President Vladimir Putin's closest friends - from entering America.
Among the individuals targeted with and travel bans and freezing of US assets are billionaire brothers Arkady and Boris Rotenberg.
The co-owners of SMP Bank and SGM Group, a major supplier of construction services to Russian gas giant Gazprom, were judo sparring partners with Mr Putin.
The pair - friends of Mr Putin since childhood - also made billions in Sochi Olympics-related contracts.
Financier Yuri Kovalchuk, the largest shareholder of Bank Rossiya, is a personal banker for senior Russian officials - including, reportedly, Mr Putin. He is another close friend - and a neighbour - of the president.
They have known each other since the early 1990s when Mr Kovalchuk was deputy mayor of St Petersburg.
The bank - also on the hit list - serves some of the country's wealthiest officials and controls two big insurance firms - Sogas and SK Transneft.
High-level Kremlin officials including Mr Putin's chief of staff Sergei Ivanov and deputy chief of staff Alexei Gromov are also targeted, as well as Vladimir Yakunin, chairman of the board of the Russian state-owned company Russian Railways and a close confidant of the president.
Gennady Timchenko, a prominent businessman and owner of the private investment group, Volga Group, which specialises in investments in energy, transport and infrastructure assets is also named by the US.
President Putin's spokesman said some of the names on the list caused "nothing but extreme bewilderment" - and Russia immediately responded with its own list of sanctions on American officials.
These included Obama aides Caroline Atkinson (deputy assistant and deputy national security adviser for international economics), Daniel Pfeiffer (senior adviser and assistant ), and Benjamin Rhodes (assistant and deputy national security adviser for strategic communications and speechwriting), as well as senators Mary Landrieu, John McCain and Daniel Coats.
Mr McCain, the former Republican presidential candidate, and Mr Putin have long been engaged in a bitter personal feud.
During their last war of words in September 2013, the US senator accused Mr Putin of corruption, repression and self-serving rule in an opinion piece for a Russian website in response to a letter Mr Putin wrote in The New York Times, urging America not to use military force in Syria.
In an opinion piece headlined "Russians Deserve Better Than Putin", Mr McCain also accused the president of being "a friend to tyrants and an enemy to the oppressed" for siding with Syria's President Bashar al Assad.
Back in December 2011, Mr Putin let his views be known on Mr McCain after the US politician tweeted "Dear Vlad, The #ArabSpring is coming to a neighbourhood near you" at a time of huge protests across Moscow.
When pressed about the tweet during a televised phone-in, the Russian president hit back, calling the senator "nuts".
"Mr McCain fought in Vietnam. I think he has enough blood of peaceful citizens on his hands. It must be impossible for him to live without these disgusting scenes anymore," he said.
Mr Putin added: "Mr McCain was captured and they kept him not just in prison, but in a pit for several years. Anyone [in his place] would go nuts."
Earlier this month, Speaker of the House John Boehner, also on the Russian list, called Mr Putin a "thug" over its actions in Crimea, according to The Enquirer.
The Republican told the Cincinnati newspaper it was "time to stand up to Putin", adding: "At what point do you say enough is enough? We are at that point."
He, and Senators Landrieu, McCain and Coats hailed their inclusion on the Russian list as a "badge of honour", while the White House refused to comment.
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