The Kremlin has expressed surprise at the US decision to impose sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s daughters, calling it part of the West’s wider hysteria against Russia, according to Reuters.
New US sanctions against Moscow in connection with the invasion of Ukraine, announced yesterday, are aimed at Russian banks and the elite, including Putin’s daughters Catherine and Maria. The US government believes that it is hiding its father’s wealth.
“Of course, we see these sanctions as a continuation of an absolutely extreme position on the introduction of restrictions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media. “In any case, the ongoing line to impose restrictions on family members speaks for itself.”
Peskov stressed that the Kremlin does not understand why Putin’s daughters will be subject to sanctions. “This is something that is difficult to understand and explain,” he said. “Unfortunately, we have to deal with such opponents.”
Under the US sanctions package, Kateryna Tikhonova is a technical manager whose work is aimed at supporting the Russian government and the defense industry. According to the United States, Putin’s other daughter, Maria Vorontsova, runs state-funded programs that have received billions of dollars from the Kremlin for genetic research and are under Putin’s personal control.
The Russian president has always kept his personal life and the lives of his family out of the public eye. The Kremlin has often refused to answer questions about them, citing the right to privacy, according to Reuters.