New US sanctions against Russia's elites include a woman believed to be a long-term partner of President Vladimir Putin. The Treasury Department has announced that the government has frozen the visa of Alina Maratovna Kabáyeva, an Olympic gymnast in her youth and a former member of the State Duma, the Russian Parliament. Other restrictions have also been imposed. Alina Kabayeva also chairs a media group dedicated to propaganda about the invasion of Ukraine.
Jailed opponent Alexei Navalni and other critics of the Kremlin had both called for sanctions against Kabayeva. Already in May, the United Kingdom applied them and the European Union did the same in June, freezing her interests in the community territory and denying her a visa. Last April, Putin's two daughters, Katerina Vladimírovna Tikhonova and Maria Vladimírovna Vorontsova, were subjected to similar sanctions.
Among the new sanctions by Washington is also Andrei Grigorievich Guryev, an oligarch who owns a mansion called Witanhurst, with 25 bedrooms, the second largest real estate in London after Buckingham Palace. His yacht, the Alfa Nero, valued at $120 million, has been immobilized. His son and his financial company have also been sanctioned. The State Department, for its part, applied visa restrictions to all of them, and also to a total of 893 Russian officials, including members of the army and the Senate.
