US targets Putin’s daughters, Russian banks in new sanctions

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States on Wednesday tightened the financial vise on Russia, announcing sanctions that target President Vladimir Putin’s two adult daughters and block two key Russian banks in retaliation for “war crimes” in Ukraine.

The latest sanctions underscore the economic pain that Russia faces, as evidence that its troops killed Ukrainian civilians leads to ever harsher penalties by the U.S. and its Western allies that erode Putin’s ability to fight.

While rounds of increased sanctions have not forced Putin out of the war, they have put Russia in increasingly desperate economic circumstances as Ukrainian forces withstand his barrages. Key to the effectiveness of the sanctions has been the unity between the U.S. and European nations. And the atrocities revealed in Ukraine have intensified pressure on Germany and other countries to go further and join the U.S. and Lithuania in blocking all Russian energy exports.

The U.K. piled on Wednesday with asset freezes against two major banks, a ban on British investment in Russia and a pledge to end dependency on Russian coal and oil by yearend.

The European Union was also expected to soon take additional steps, including a ban on new investment in Russia and an embargo on coal, after the recent evidence of atrocities emerging in the wake of the retreat by Russian forces from the town of Bucha.

The U.S. acted against two of Russia’s largest banks, Sberbank and Alfa Bank, prohibiting assets from going through the U.S. financial system and barring Americans from doing business with those two institutions.

In addition to sanctions aimed at Putin’s adult daughters, Mariya Putina and Katerina Tikhonova, the U.S. is targeting Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin; the wife and children of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov; and members of Russia’s Security Council, including Dmitry Medvedev, a former president and prime minister.

The penalties cut off all of Putin’s close family members from the U.S. financial system and freeze any assets they hold in the United States.

President Joe Biden said the latest sanctions would be “devastating.”

“I made clear that Russia would pay a severe and immediate price for its atrocities in Bucha,” Biden said in a tweet. Full story here: