WASHINGTON (AP) — New US sanctions targeting Russia’s elite include a woman named in news reports as a longtime romantic partner of Vladimir Putin.
The Ministry of Finance announced on Tuesday that the government had frozen the visa and imposed other property restrictions on Alina Kabaeva, a young Olympic gymnast and former member of the State House of Representatives. The ministry said she is also head of a Russian state media company promoting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Critics of the Kremlin and imprisoned Russian rights activist Alexei Navalny are calling for sanctions against Kabaeva, with Kabaeva’s press taking the lead by portraying Western commentary on the aggression as a disinformation campaign. said.
The UK imposed sanctions on Kabaeva in May and the EU imposed travel and property restrictions on Kabaeva in June.
The Treasury Department’s latest package of sanctions also includes oligarch Andrey Grigoryevich Guryev, who owns the Witanhurst estate, the 25-bedroom mansion that is London’s second largest mansion after Buckingham Palace.
His $120 million yacht, Alfa Nero, was also identified as a blocked property. Also sanctioned were his son Andrei Andreevich Guryev and his son’s Russian investment company Dzhi AI Invest OOO.
“As innocent people suffer from Russia’s illegal war of aggression, Putin’s allies are enriching themselves and funding an extravagant lifestyle,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement.
“The United States, along with our allies, will continue to cut off the revenue and equipment that would support Russia’s unilateral war in Ukraine.”
The State Department has also imposed additional visa restrictions and other sanctions.
America imposed in April sanctions About Putin’s adult daughters, Katerina Vladimirovna Tikhonova and Maria Vladimirovna Vorontsova.