WASHINGTON, April 7 ― The United States' latest round of sanctions on Russia includes two new targets: Russian President Vladimir Putin's two adult daughters, Katerina and Maria, who US officials believe are hiding Putin's wealth.
“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 place their assets and their wealth in the US financial system, and also many other parts of the world,” a senior US administration official told reporters.
Sanctions announced yesterday also include the daughter and wife of Russian foreign affairs minister Sergei Lavrov. The US also banned Americans from investing in Russia, and targeted Russian financial institutions and Kremlin officials, in response to what President Joe Biden condemned as Russian “atrocities” in Ukraine.
The extent of Putin's wealth is a sensitive subject in Russia. The Kremlin last year denied that he was the owner of an opulent palace on the Black Sea, as alleged by opposition politician Alexei Navalny in a video that draw a huge audience on YouTube. A Reuters investigation from 2015 detailed the connections and influence Katerina, an acrobatic rock ’n’ roll dancer, holds in the next generation of Moscow's elite.
Putin's elder daughter Maria studied biology at St. Petersburg University and medicine at Moscow State University, according to the Reuters investigation. She is also heavily involved in genetic research work, which Putin has in the past described as a field that will “determine the future of the whole world.”
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