Putin’s two daughters sanctioned by the European Union

BRUSSELS | The Europeans sanctioned the two daughters of Vladimir Putin, now on the EU blacklist, on Friday, along with more than 200 other people, including several oligarchs close to the Russian president and pro-Kremlin press bosses.

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Already targeted by Washington and London, Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova, born in 1985 and 1986 respectively, are the daughters of Vladimir Putin and Lioudmila Putina, from whom the Russian president announced that he had divorced in 2013.

Like the 217 individuals and 18 entities added to this list published in the EU’s official journal, they are banned from entering the EU and their assets are frozen there.

The eldest, Maria Vorontsova, is targeted for her role in Nomenko, a major investment project company in the health sector which provides “substantial sources of income” to the Russian government, specifies the official newspaper.

His sister, Katerina Tikhonova, runs a support fund for young scientists created by companies whose leaders “are members of the inner circle of oligarchs” of the Russian president, according to the same source.

AFP and Archyde.com screenshot

Putin and his daughter Katerina Tikhonova.

This fifth salvo of sanctions also imposes economic measures, in particular an embargo on Russian coal from August and the closure of European ports to ships flying the Russian flag. Coal purchases by the EU represent an amount of eight billion euros per year, a sum much lower than the purchases of gas and oil.

It was decided following the discovery of dozens of corpses of civilians last weekend in Boutcha, near Kyiv, following the withdrawal of Russian forces. The images sparked global shock and accusations of “war crimes” once morest Moscow.

Businessmen close to Putin, such as Oleg Deripaska, Boris and Igor Rotenberg, brother and son of billionaire Arkadi Rotenberg, German Gref, the boss of the first Russian bank Sberbank, have been added to the European list because of their support to actions “which threaten the territorial integrity” of Ukraine, underlines the EU.

The Twenty-Seven have also sanctioned several pro-Kremlin media managers, such as the directors of the TASS agency, Sergei Mikhailov, or of Komsomolskaya Pravda, Vladimir Sungorkin, described by Vladimir Putin as being “his favorite newspaper”, according to this list .

All members of the governments and assemblies (179) of the pro-Russian breakaway republics of Luhansk and Donetsk have also been added.

Four banks

VTB, the second Russian establishment, Bank Otkritie, Novikombank (subsidiary of Rostec), Sovcombank -, representing 23% of the Russian banking market, also see their assets frozen. They have already been excluded from the Swift international financial system.

Among the entities targeted, the EU has also listed a company owned by Oleg Deripaska which produces amphibious vehicles for the army.

This list, created in 2014 following the annexation of Crimea, now contains the names of 1,091 people and 80 entities.