Europe 1 with AFP 3:47 p.m., April 9, 2022

In an attempt to weaken Vladimir Putin a little more, the European Union sanctioned the Kremlin leader's two daughters on Friday.

They are now blacklisted by the EU, along with nearly 200 other people, including several oligarchs close to the Russian president and pro-Kremlin media bosses.

Already targeted by Washington and London, Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova, the two daughters of Vladimir Putin, born respectively in 1985 and 1986, have been banned from entering the EU and their assets are frozen there.

They come from the union between the leader of the Kremlin and Lioudmila Putina, from whom the Russian president announced that he had divorced in 2013.

Accused of hiding their father's money

The eldest, Maria Vorontsova, is targeted for her role in Nomenko, a major investment project company in the health sector which provides “substantial sources of income” to the Russian government, specifies the official newspaper.

His sister, Katerina Tikhonova, runs a support fund for young scientists created by companies whose leaders "are members of the Russian president's inner circle of oligarchs", according to the same source.

This fifth salvo of sanctions also imposes economic measures, in particular an embargo on Russian coal from August and the closure of European ports to ships flying the Russian flag.

Coal purchases by the EU represent an amount of eight billion euros per year, a sum much lower than the purchases of gas and oil.

1,091 people registered on this list since 2014

It was decided after the discovery of dozens of civilian corpses last weekend in Boutcha, near kyiv, after the withdrawal of Russian forces.

The images sparked global shock and accusations of "war crimes" against Moscow.

This list, created in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea, now contains the names of 1,091 people and 80 entities.