US, UK level new sanctions on Russia following Bucha massacre
The US has imposed a raft of new sanctions on Russia including on Putin’s two adult daughters who are accused of “hiding” their father’s wealth.
Economy
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Two of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s daughters now face US sanctions accused of “hiding” their father’s immense wealth.
The new move follows the gruesome scenes in Bucha, north of Kyiv, where locals were executed and war crimes are alleged to have been committed.
The wife and daughter of foreign minister Sergey Lavrov are also on the new list, as is former president Dmitry Medvedev.
The White House also declared “full blocking” sanctions on Russia’s largest public and private financial institutions, Sberbank and Alfa Bank, and said all new US investment in Russia was now prohibited.
The sanctions on Sberbank are notable as it is Russia’s largest bank with one third of the country's entire banking assets
The UK followed the US with similar financial sanctions.
“Today we’re dramatically escalating the financial shock by imposing full blocking sanctions on Russia’s largest financial institution, Sberbank, and its largest private bank, Alfa Bank,” a senior administration official told reporters, CNN reported.
Daughters sanctioned
Putin’s adult daughters Mariya Putina and Katerina Tikhonova will face sanctions for the first time.
The White House believes they are holding funds for their wealthy father.
“We have reason to believe that Putin and many of his cronies and the oligarchs hide their wealth, hide their assets, with family members that have placed their assets and their wealth in the US financial system, but also many other parts of the world,” the US Government official told CNN.
“That’s why the co-ordination, the co-ordinated efforts to freeze their assets and seize their physical luxury goods – their cars, their yachts, their homes – that’s why it’s so important that we act together.”
Putin has two adult daughters from his first marriage to former flight attendant Lyudmila Shkrebneva, which ended in 2013.
Putin’s ‘secret daughter’
The eldest, Maria, is believed to have been born in Leningrad (now called St Petersburg) in 1985, with sister Katerina arriving the following year while the family was living in Germany.
However, Mr Putin has never mentioned their names publicly, and rarely comments on his family life at all.
But while Katerina has given media interviews in the past — and made headlines for her apparent passion for the quirky sport of acrobatic rock ‘n’ roll — Maria’s life has long been kept under wraps.
However, the blonde 36-year-old, who has been dubbed Putin’s “secret daughter” by the press, dropped some surprising clues about herself during an interview with state-owned TV channel Russia 1 in 2019.
During the interview it was revealed she is a co-owner and top executive at Nomeko, a new, $A894 million medical firm focused on cancer research.
Located near St Petersburg, Nomeko is said to be the biggest private investment project in healthcare in the country.
According to the BBC, Maria reportedly has a 20 per cent stake along with four other owners.
It is designed to hold 20,000 patients and will be able to perform 10,000 operations annually.
The Sun previously reported Maria — apparently nicknamed Masha — lives in a luxury penthouse in the Russian capital of Moscow, near the American embassy.
She is believed to be multilingual, and fluent in English, Dutch, Russian and French and is a children’s endocrinologist and research assistant.
She graduated with a medical degree from the Faculty of Fundamental Medicine at Moscow State University in 2011, according to the Daily Mail, and completed an internship at the Institute of Paediatric Endocrinology at the FSBI Endocrinological Research Centre — part of the Ministry of Health — in 2014.
Maria later completed a PhD with postgraduate research into dwarfism.
Earlier this year, it was reported that her marriage to wealthy Dutch businessman Jorrit Faassen – with whom she shares at least one child – had collapsed.
In the wake of her father’s invasion of Ukraine, exiled Russian investigative journalist Sergey Kanev said that Putin “did a rotten job for his elder daughter” by triggering massive Western sanctions.
“She has a big share in the mega-project for the construction of a super modern medical centre near St Petersburg,” he claimed recently.
“The plans were to attract patients from Europe and rich sheiks from the Persian Gulf countries.
“And now, after the attack on Ukraine, what kind of Europeans and sheiks will come?”
Katerina’s rock ‘n’ roll passion
Meanwhile, just like her older sister, Katerina Tikhonova also spent most of her life out of the public eye — until a few years ago.
She was first identified by Reuters in 2015, as an active participant in a sport known as “acrobatic rock’n’roll” — a mix of gymnastics and dance.
Ms Tikhonova, 35, who allegedly uses her maternal grandmother’s last name in a bid to remain anonymous, was also reported as heading a massive expansion of Moscow State University in 2015.
She married Russian billionaire Kirill Shamalov in 2013, although the pair have allegedly since split, and in 2018 Ms Tikhonova made her television debut on Russia 1.
Identified as the “deputy director of the institute for mathematical research of complex systems at Moscow’s State University”, Ms Tikhonova spoke with reporters about advancements in technology aimed at controlling electrical impulses in the brain, BBC Monitoring reported.
– with Alexis Carey.
Originally published as US, UK level new sanctions on Russia following Bucha massacre
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