Gazprom has relationships with major foreign companies, especially in Europe. Gazprom itself is not under sanctions, but the inclusion of Miller on the blacklist could create complicated legal dilemmas for partner companies. Although they are under European Union jurisdiction, they will not want to fall foul of any U.S. legislation Deripaska's blacklisting will also reverberate around the world because his empire has a global footprint and counts major multinationals as partners, including German automaker Volkswagen. Deripaska called the decision to target him "very unfortunate but not unexpected." "Certainly the grounds for putting my name on the list of SDNs as provided by U.S. officials are groundless, ridiculous and absurd," he said, in a statement sent to Reuters by a spokesperson for his industrial group Basic Element. SDN stands for "Specially Designated National."