new York The US government has expanded its sanctions against Russia. Now the adult children of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the closest relatives of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are also affected. “The disgusting brutality in Bucha has tragically exposed the despicable nature of the Putin regime,” a senior government official said on Wednesday, referring to the killing of hundreds of residents in the Kyiv suburb.
Putin’s daughter Katerina Vladimirovna Tikhonova is a technical executive whose work supports the Russian government and the defense industry, the US Treasury Department said. Her sister Maria Vladimirovna Vorontsova runs state-funded programs that are funded by the Kremlin with billions of dollars for genetic research and supervised personally by Putin.
Little is known about Putin’s daughters. Tikhonova was born in 1986, her sister in 1985. The sanctions will cut off the two women from the US financial system and freeze their assets in the United States. These measures also target Lavrov’s wife Maria and daughter Yekaterina, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, members of the Security Council and former President Dmitry Medvedev.
In addition to personal sanctions against members of Putin’s and Lavrov’s families, the US has also increased sanctions on two banks, Sberbank and Alfa Bank. It is no longer just dollar transactions that are affected, but all transactions with the bank.
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“Sberbank is the main artery of the Russian financial system and holds a third of all Russian assets,” a senior US government official said. The sanctions also target 42 subsidiaries of the bank. Alfa Bank is Russia’s largest privately held financial institution, six subsidiaries and five ships will also be sanctioned, according to the US Treasury Department.
With the measures, two-thirds of Russia’s banking system is now blocked, the official said. In addition, US President Joe Biden will ban all new investments with a presidential decree. “As a result, Putin will lose know-how from the private sector.” The brain drain will be enormous, the official said. “Russia was the 11th economy in the world. They will soon fall out of the top 20,” the government official predicted. “You will return to the Soviet lifestyle”
More details on Thursday
Russia should be further isolated from the world economy, it said. Important Russian state-owned companies are also subject to punitive measures. These measures prohibit all US citizens from doing business with these companies. The assets of companies in the US are frozen.
This will hamper the Kremlin’s ability to use these companies to fund the war in Ukraine, it said. The US Treasury Department plans to announce which companies are involved on Thursday.
The US Treasury Department also prohibits Russia from paying off debts with funds subject to US jurisdiction. The US government also announced criminal investigations into Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeev on Wednesday. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced charges against the billionaire for violating previously imposed sanctions.
The United States takes consistent action against people it has sanctioned.
(Photo: Reuters)
Malofeev has been identified in the past as one of the main sources of funding for the separatist movements in Crimea and in the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic in Ukraine, and has been subject to punitive measures. After the US sanctions were imposed, Malofeev then tried to circumvent them by acquiring and operating media outlets across Europe through accomplices.
Garland said millions of dollars were also seized from an account at a US financial institution, which was proceeds linked to Malofeev’s sanctions violations.
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US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco warned Russian billionaires and criminals: “We keep an eye on every yacht and every jet. We have kept our eyes on every work of art and property bought with dirty money, and every bitcoin wallet filled with proceeds of theft and other crimes.”
The USA, the EU, Great Britain and other allies have already imposed numerous sanctions on Moscow because of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. So far, the targets of the measures have included Russia’s financial system, the technology sector and politicians and oligarchs who are considered Putin’s followers.
With dpa material
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