The BBC says the United States has imposed sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin's daughters, Katerina Vladimirovna Tikhonova and Maria Vladimirovna Vorontsova.
They were reportedly put under sanctions “for being the adult children of Putin, a person whose property and interests in property are blocked.”
The announcement described Ms. Tikhonova as "a tech executive whose work supports the GoR [Russian government] and defense industry."
Her sister, Ms. Vorontsova, it went on, "leads state-funded programs that have received billions of dollars from the Kremlin toward genetics research and are personally overseen by Putin."
Asked why the US was targeting Mr. Putin's daughters, a senior Biden administration official reportedly said the US thought they could be in control of some of their father's assets.
The list reportedly also includes the family of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and major banks.
According to the BBC, the US sanctions announced by the White House include: economic measures to ban new investment in Russia; severe financial sanctions on Russia's largest private bank, Alfa Bank, and its largest financial institution, Sberbank; sanctions on critical major state-owned enterprises; and sanctions on Russian government officials and their family members.
The measures reportedly follow new revelations of atrocities by Russian troops in Ukraine, including images of bodies of civilians scattered on the streets of Bucha, near Kiev.
Russia has categorically rejected accusations that Russian forces were responsible for killing civilians in Bucha, saying that the images are staged by Kiev officials. Russian defense ministry experts have reportedly identified signs of video fakes. Putin yesterday described the event as a "crude and cynical provocation by the Kiev regime."
