The EU and the US are preparing sanctions against two daughters of President Vladimir Putin, Business Insider reports, citing reports. According to White House spokesman Jen Paskey, the measures will affect “family members” of “Russian government officials” as well as targets such as banks and state-owned enterprises. However, she did not say if the family of the Russian president was among them. Putin came under US sanctions shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The EU is considering imposing sanctions against Putin’s daughters, Insider writes with reference to The Wall Street Journal. These measures still have to be approved by EU member states, the newspaper writes.
Putin has two daughters with ex-wife Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Putina, but he rarely talks about them. This is Katerina Tikhonovna, a gymnast, and Maria Vorontsova, who works in the field of medicine.
It is not clear if Putin has other children, and few of the reported details of their lives have been officially confirmed. In 2015, Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov denied rumors that Putin had another child with Alina Kabaeva, known as his mistress, Forbes Russia reported.
It is also unclear whether Tikhonovna and Vorontsova have assets outside of Russia. Tikhonova was married to billionaire Kirill Shamalov, the son of a close friend of the president. The couple’s assets are estimated at $2 billion, Reuters wrote in 2015. In 2018, they split up, according to Bloomberg.
Vorontsova is a co-owner of a Russian private equity firm in the healthcare industry. She fled her home in the Netherlands in 2014 after the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed, killing several Dutch residents and has long been suspected by the Kremlin.