The department on Monday published a list of Russian officials and business leaders eligible for sanctions for their alleged meddling in the US presidential elections, Xinhua reported.
Yet the list was reportedly "copied" from the Forbes' 2017 list of the World's Billionaires and bore stunning similarity with the officials name list on the English website of the Russian government.
"Treasury submitted an unclassified version of this report together with classified annexes," Tony Sayegh, assistant secretary for public affairs, said in an announcement on Thursday.
"The unclassified report was derived from open source materials which include websites, government documents, public records, and news stories among other items. The classified version was derived from classified sources and methods."
The department added that the classified annex was included to "avoid potential asset flight from the named individuals and entities, as well as to prevent disclosure of sensitive information."
"Treasury is utilizing this information to inform future targeted sanctions," Sayegh said. "We hope this clarification will lead to more responsible reporting and discussion."
Despite wide questioning of the list's credibility and operability, the Treasury Department noted that "while this extensive report was not a sanctions list... Treasury is using this report to inform future targeted sanctions, and there will be sanctions that come out of this."
Russia has responded strongly to the list as President Vladimir Putin said that the list is an unfriendly gesture and would undermine the nation's relations with the US in the long run.
(This story has not been edited by Social News XYZ staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
