UK joins US in imposing sanctions on Putin’s daughters
The UK has imposed sanctions on Vladimir Putin’s two adult daughters, following in the footsteps of the US in another symbolic move to put pressure on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Katerina Tikhonova and Maria Vorontsova will be subject to an asset freeze and a travel ban, although it is not clear whether either of them has ever visited the UK or whether they own any assets within reach of UK officials.
The US imposed sanctions on the women on Wednesday, with a senior US official saying that many of Putin’s assets were hidden with family members. There have been persistent but unconfirmed reports that Putin has fathered other daughters but Tikhonova and Vorontsova are his only publicly acknowledged children.
Both were designated by the UK on Friday under an urgent procedure, under which the government can impose sanctions on the basis of allies’ evidence if they think it is in the public interest. The urgent procedure gives the UK 56 days to find its own evidence.
The EU has also imposed sanctions the sisters as part of a new package of measures targeting Russia’s economy, businessmen and oligarchs, according to two EU officials who spoke to Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Neither daughter had been added to the EU’s public sanctions list on Friday morning.
A report on the EUobserver website earlier this week, citing a draft version of that EU list, claimed the soon-to-be-announced sanctions would also cover several wives, ex-wives, sisters, stepdaughters and mothers-in-law of pro-Kremlin oligarchs.
Putin’s daughters with his former wife, Lyudmila, have kept a low public profile and have not made any official public appearances with him as adults.
The UK’s sanctions designation said Vorontsova was born in
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