WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Thursday she would be surprised if the United States doesn’t at some point impose sanctions on Russian firms or entities covered by a U.S. sanctions law that went into effect in late January.

The Trump administration faced criticism when the law went into effect and the department issued a list of wealthy Russians but failed to take any punitive action. Nauert told a briefing on Thursday the department has people monitoring transactions worldwide to see if sanctions are merited.

“As you know we don’t forecast sanctions,” she told the briefing, “but I would be very surprised if there weren’t sanctions in the future.”