The European Union has compiled a new list of 107 Russians, including "almost all of the country's upper political leadership," upon whom financial and travel sanctions may be imposed if Russian troops invade eastern Ukraine, a news report said Wednesday.
The list, which even includes several journalists believed to have "actively participated in propaganda supporting the annexation of Crimea," could be supplemented with the names of Ukrainian and Crimean officials as well, the Kommersant newspaper reported, citing an undisclosed source in Brussels.
The list covers nearly all members of Russia's Security Council, numerous Federal Security Service and Defense Ministry officials, and several parliament members who deal with "international affairs, defense and security," including Alexander Torshin, Ilyas Umakhanov, Alexei Pushkov and Vladimir Komoyedov, the report said.
However, the list does not mention President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev or Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The sanctions, like those already imposed in the wake of Crimea's annexation, would ban the targets from entering the EU and would freeze assets they own there.
Pro-Kremlin journalist Dmitry Kiselyov, who hosts a primetime television news show and was last year named the head of one of Russia's largest news wires (Rossia Segodnya, formerly RIA Novosti), was the first journalist whom the EU imposed sanctions on following the annexation.
The new list reportedly threatens Channel One pundits Mikhail Leontyev and Irada Zeinalova, as well as Mikhail Gusman, a veteran journalist at state news wire Itar-Tass.
