WASHINGTON: The United States targeted Russian banks and elites with a new package of sanctions on Wednesday that includes banning any American from investing in Russia, after global accusations of Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
The new sanctions will put full blocking sanctions in Russia’s Sberbank, which holds one-third of Russia’s total banking assets, and Alfabank Energy transactions are blocked from these sanctions. Americans are banned from investing in Russia, including through venture capital or mergers.
The United States is also sanctioning Russian President Vladimir Putin’s adult daughters, Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova, with his former wife Lyudmila Shkrebneva.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s wife and daughter, and members of Russia’s security council including the former president and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev and the current prime minister Mikhail Mishustin have also been targeted.
“These individuals have enriched themselves at the expense of the Russian people. Some of them are responsible for providing the support necessary to underpin Putin’s war on Ukraine,” the White House said. “We believe that many of Putin’s assets are hidden with family members, and that’s why we’re targeting them,” a senior US official told reporters, referring to the two daughters.
Vorontsova, Putin’s eldest daughter, is reported to be a specialist in rare diseases in children. Tikhonova, an academic who for years competed in acrobatic rock’n’roll dance contests, was appointed in 2020 to run an artificial intelligence institute at Moscow State University.
The US Justice Department on Wednesday also announced new enforcement actions to disrupt and prosecute criminal Russian activity. Grim images emerging from the Ukrainian city of Bucha include a mass grave and bodies of people shot at close range, prompted calls for tougher action against Moscow and an international investigation.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the killings were part of a deliberate Russian campaign to commit atrocities. Russia denies targeting civilians and said images of the deaths were a “monstrous forgery” staged by the West.
