On Friday, the US government imposed new sanctions on people close to Vladimir Putin’s inner circle. This time they were directed against the ice-dancing wife of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov and Putin’s “personal banker” who financed his alleged gymnast mistress.
The White House on Monday announced “total blocking sanctions” on Russian elites and family members, including Yuri Kovalchuk, known as “Putin’s banker.”
The oligarch is close to Putin and owns shares in the National Media Group, chaired by Alina Kabaeva, who is rumored to be Putin’s gymnastics mistress.
She allegedly met Putin in 2001 when she was an 18-year-old gymnast. She won gold in the rhythmic gymnastics individual all-around at the Athens Olympics before becoming a pro-Putin State Duma deputy and then made big money as the head of a media giant.
In 2020, The Insider reported based on a leaked tax database that her official income was around $10 million. The Kremlin has long denied the affair.
The White House has announced sanctions imposed by the US, the European Union and other G7 countries to impose “additional economic costs on Russia” whose economy has suffered since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The White House announced sanctions against Yuri Kovalchuk, known as “Putin’s banker” and holding shares in a media company headed by Alina Kabaeva. Putin and Kabaeva during the meeting of the President of Russia with the Olympic team in the Kremlin in 2004.
The sanctions were lifted on the day President Biden announced the end of Russia’s permanent normal trade status amid new reports of attacks on civilians during Russia’s two-week-long invasion of Ukraine.
They also ended after the New York Times reported that US authorities were inspecting a $700 million megayacht linked to Putin in dry dock in Italy.
Italian authorities boarded the Scheherazade last week and examined certification documents in a bid to learn more about the ship’s ownership, and Captain Guy Bennett-Pierce said earlier this week that he would provide Italian police with documents revealing the yacht’s owner.
Italian authorities have said they are looking into the Scheherazade closely, and Italy’s financial police have said they will collect evidence and present it to a government committee, which will then decide if the ship is linked to anyone on the US sanctions list.
This connection could be direct ownership of a significant portion of the ship, or evidence that a friend, subordinate, or partner provided their name to disguise the ownership of the sanctioned person, or the funds used to purchase the ship were derived from illegal profits.
If the committee finds that the evidence meets the threshold, the financial police can confiscate Scheherazade.
But Bennett-Pierce, the captain of the Scheherazade, said earlier this week that Putin did not own the superyacht and the Russian president never set foot on it.
And the Italian maritime group, which owns the shipyard where it is docked, said Thursday in a statement that based on the documents it has and “verifications by the relevant authorities”, the Scheherazade “does not belong to the Russian president.” Vladimir Putin.’
However, under recently released changes to the Commerce Department’s rules, if more than 25 percent of aircraft or yachts are made up of parts made in the US, they cannot enter Russia without a license.
So if US officials decide that Scheherazade, with its full-size gym, two helipads, and gold-plated fixtures, is at least a quarter made in the US, the US government can work with its Italian counterparts to prevent it from moving to the Russian market. water.
Meanwhile, Page Six reported last week that Alina Kabayeva, 38, had fled to a Swiss chalet with four children believed to be Putin’s children, citing a source. She is called “the most flexible woman in Russia.”
Glamorous athlete Alina Kabaeva appeared on the cover of Russian Vogue – pictured at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg in 2008.
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Russian gymnasts Alina Kabaeva (center) and Svetlana Khorkina before the 2004 Olympics.
Tatyana Navka, a former Russian figure skater and now wife of Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov, poses for the media on the red carpet ahead of the closing ceremony of the 41st Moscow International Film Festival at the Pushkinsky Cinema Center in Moscow, Russia, April 25, 2019. Government says she’s $10 million worth of real estate
Russian President Vladimir Putin (center) and Tatyana Navka. The 2006 Turin Olympic champion in figure skating gives chocolates to children at the Red Square skating rink in Moscow, Tuesday, December 26, 2006.
The Ministry of Finance stated that the fortune of the oligarch Viktor Vekselberg is $6 billion.
In a statement about the sanctions, Peskov is called “the main propagandist of the Kremlin.” On Friday, he continued to justify the invasion, calling it a “special military operation.”
Putin allegedly met Alina Kabaeva in 2001 when she was an 18-year-old gymnast. Here she performs during the gymnastics gala at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, September 26, 2000.
The Ministry of Finance estimated Vekselberg’s plane at $90 million
The government said his Tango yacht is also worth $90 million. It belongs to Russian tycoon Viktor Vekselberg, a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
This multispectral satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows destroyed houses, impact craters and fires in the city of Moshchun, Ukraine, during the Russian invasion, Friday, March 11, 2022.
The US has already imposed sanctions on Dmitry Peskov, a key Kremlin figure who continued to justify the Russian invasion on Friday. The State Department called him the regime’s “chief propagandist” when it announced sanctions against him a few days ago.
The recently announced Finance Ministry sanctions, announced on Friday, target members of Peskov’s family, who all lead a “luxurious lifestyle” that the agency said is “inconsistent” with Peskov’s salary as a civil servant and likely based on ill-gotten wealth. Peskov’s connections. Putin.”
His wife, Tatyana Alexandrovna Navka (Navka), owns more than $10 million worth of property, according to the Finance Ministry, with assets in the Moscow region where Putin lives, an apartment in Moscow, and another in Crimea, where Russia invaded in 2014.
She first rose to prominence when she won a gold medal in ice dancing representing Russia at the 2006 Winter Olympics and then hosted a dance show on Russia’s state-run, pro-Kremlin Channel One, the agency said.
A citizen of Russia, she lived and trained in the USA for more than ten years.
The couple have children from a previous relationship and a daughter born in August 2014.
The Treasury also identified Peskov’s two adult children, Nikolai Peskov (Nikolai) and Elizaveta Dmitrievna Peskov (Liza), as persons whose property was blocked due to their association with Peskov.
Nikolai grew up in the UK, later served in the Russian military and worked for RT, a Kremlin-backed publication that was restricted by social media following the Russian invasion.
She “travels in private jets and yachts,” according to the Treasury Department.
Lisa has “tens of thousands of followers on social media where she shows off her luxurious lifestyle” and publicly supported Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
According to reports from Russia, Elizaveta Peskova posted the phrase “no war” to her Instagram Live account only to quickly delete it.
The Treasury estimates Vekselberg’s fortune at $6 billion and has long been known to be close to Putin.
Its assets “cover several sectors of the economy of the Russian Federation.”
The government has listed two of his assets, worth $90 million each, as “blocked property”: an Airbus A319 aircraft and a Tango yacht, which is flagged by the Cook Islands in the South Pacific.
The Finance Ministry also appointed 10 officials from Russia’s second largest bank, VTB Bank.