The United States wanted to strike hard.
Washington has taken a step by sanctioning, for the first time, the family of the master of the Kremlin.
The White House announced on Wednesday, April 6, a new set of sanctions against Russia, targeting in particular the country's banks and elites, but also the entourage of Russian President Vladimir Putin, by imposing sanctions against daughters of the latter, because of the "atrocities in Ukraine" after the Russian invasion.
Their assets are frozen and they no longer have access to the American financial system.
Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova, aged around 30, are from the marriage of Vladimir Putin to Lyudmila Putina, from whom the Russian president announced that he was divorcing in 2013.
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The eldest, Maria Vorontosa, is being sanctioned for her role in Nomenko, a major healthcare investment project company that provides "substantial sources of revenue" for the Russian government, according to the document.
His sister, Katerina Tikhonova, runs a support fund for young Russian scientists, founded by companies whose leaders "are members of the circle of oligarchs close" to Putin, according to the same source.
From Russian oligarchs to Putin's daughters
The two daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin have always remained outside the public sphere, and little is known about them.
The U.S. Treasury identified the two women as Katerina Tikhonova, "a tech executive who supports...Russia's defense industry," and Maria Vorontsova, who heads a state-funded genetics research program Russian and "supervised personally by Putin".
According to a senior US official, Washington is convinced that "Putin's assets are hidden through members of his family".
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The Russian president's official biography on the Kremlin website claims that his daughter Maria was born in 1985 before the family moved to Dresden, East Germany, where Vladimir Putin was sent as a KGB agent.
His second daughter, Katerina, was born the following year in this city.
The only photo of the two women shows them as little girls with ribbons in their blond braids.
Through a few rare remarks over the years, Vladimir Putin reveals that his daughters received their higher education in Russia, speak several European languages and live in Russia.
But the general public knows little about them beyond this brief information, as the Kremlin has kept Vladimir Putin's family life firmly out of the public sphere.
endocrinologist and mathematician
According to some Russian media, Maria Vorontsova is an endocrinologist working at a large medical research company focused on cancer treatments and with ties to the Russian state.
Russian media have also identified Katarina Tikhonova as a mathematician who heads a science and technology foundation affiliated with Russia's main state university.
She is also a professional acrobatic rock'n'roll dancer, having participated in prestigious international competitions, according to these same media.
Videos from these tournaments show her dressed in sparkling costumes, in particular leaning on the hands of her partner before being catapulted into the air for an acrobatic return.
At a press conference in 2019, Vladimir Putin refused to directly answer a question about his daughters' growing influence in business and their ties to the state.
The Russian president also did not recognize that Maria Vorontsova and Katarina Tikhonova were his daughters, simply referring to them as "women".
Several years earlier, during another press conference, Vladimir Putin had nevertheless claimed to be "proud of them".
"They continue to study and work", he said, before adding that they were "involved in no business activity" or "in politics".
In 2020, during an interview, the Russian president said he did not want to share information about his family, due to "security problems", specifying all the same that he had grandchildren. children, without giving their number.
"I have grandchildren, I'm happy. They are very good, so nice. I enjoy spending time with them," Vladimir Putin said at the time.
With AFP
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