As part of a new package of sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, the European Union (EU) has imposed sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s daughters Maria Vorontsova and Ekaterina Tikhonova, as well as 215 more individuals, according to an official list released Friday night.
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Putin’s daughters are on the renewed list of individuals whose assets have been frozen and banned from traveling. Sanctions have also been imposed on 18 companies.
Among those on the list are Herman Gref, head of Russia’s largest Sberbank, oligarch Oleg Deripaska, owner of the arms factory, Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry, several members of the Rotenberg family close to Putin, and members of the self-proclaimed Donbass People’s Republic.
Sanctions for Maria Voroncova and Ekaterina Tikhonova, born in 1985 and 1986 respectively, were previously imposed by the United States and Great Britain. Their mother is Putin’s ex-wife, Lyudmila, whose divorce from Putin was announced in 2013.
News of Putin’s daughters’ lives is a secret kept by the Kremlin.
Similar measures were imposed in the United States two days ago.
The EU announced that Maria Vorontsov was on the sanctions list as a co-owner of Nomenko. The company is “involved in Russia’s largest private investment project in health care”, so she benefits from the Kremlin and operates in an industry that provides the Kremlin with income.
Ekaterina Tikhonova is on the sanctions list because “she is currently leading the Innopraktika development initiative, set up by Russian companies whose directors are members of the oligarchs closest to President Putin,” so she also benefits from and generates income for the Kremlin.
The EU has decided to impose a fifth package of sanctions on Russia’s war against Ukraine following evidence of atrocities by Russian troops in the occupied Kiev region, including the torture and massacre of civilians.
In addition to sanctions against natural persons, the EU has also approved an embargo on coal imports.
These are the first sanctions imposed on Russia’s lucrative energy industry as a result of Putin’s war, and are estimated at four billion euros a year, the EU presidency said.
The EU has already begun work on additional sanctions, including on oil imports.
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