New Delhi: The latest round of the US sanctions announced on Wednesday against Russia has targeted two daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who US officials believe are hiding Putin's wealth, according to the report in Reuters.
The White House has imposed sanctions against two daughters of Vladimir Putin, Katerina Tikhonova and Maria Vorontsova, in response to "war crimes" in Ukraine.
Who are Katerina Tikhonova and Maria Vorontsova?
Katerina Vladimirovna Tikhonova is a tech executive whose work supports the Russian government and its defence industry, according to details in the US sanctions package, as per Reuters.
While the other daughter Maria Vladimirovna Vorontsova heads government-funded programmes that have received billions of dollars from the Kremlin toward genetics research, and are personally overseen by Putin, said the US.
However, Putin's daughters have never confirmed publicly that the Russian leader is their father, and Putin also dodged questions about them.
Infact, an investigation by Reuters from 2015 have listed the connections and influence of Katerina, an acrobatic rock ’n’ roll dancer in the next generation of Moscow's elite.
Why are they targeted?
The daughters are targeted as the US believes that many of Putin's assets are hidden with family members.
"We have reason to believe that Putin, and many of his cronies, and the oligarchs, hide their wealth, hide their assets, with family members that place their assets and their wealth in the US financial system, and also many other parts of the world," a senior US administration told reporters.
"We believe that many of Putin's assets are hidden with family members, and that's why we're targeting them," the official told the agency.
In addition to the sanctions against Putin’s daughters, the wife and daughter of Russian foreign affairs minister Sergei Lavrov have also been targeted.