Today is the day of the face of Katerina Tikhonova, 35, scientist, head of the Moscow University Institute of Artificial Intelligence, and former rock’n’roll acrobatic dancer. She is one of the targets of the new sanctions decided by the United States to punish her father, the Russian president Vladimir Putin. The White House has accused Katerina, the sister Maria Vorontsova and other people for “getting rich at the expense of the Russian people” and for supporting the invasion of Ukraine. Sberbank, the largest public bank, Alfa Bank, and other oligarchs are also targeted. Meanwhile, international diplomacy is struggling to find solutions. He also said so Pope francesco during the general audience: “In the current war in Ukraine – he commented – we are witnessing the impotence of the United Nations Organization”. While Europe is also divided on sanctions, Lithuania is the first member state to block gas imports. Great Britain has announced the freezing of all Sberbank assets, and a commitment to stop all imports of oil and coal by the end of the year. Moscow does not rule out a complete break in diplomatic relations with the West.
New disturbing news arrives from the front: the mayor of Hostomel, where the Kiev airport is located, said that she no longer has the count of how many civilians have been killed. The number of missing people exceeds four hundred. Witnesses told of people killed at home by Russian soldiers. In Bucha, twenty-five girls between the ages of 14 and 24 reported having been raped, some of them in the presence of their dying mothers. Sasha, the 4-year-old boy who disappeared in mid-March during the bombings, was found dead. Mariupol, said the mayor, “has become the new Auschwitz”. “The racists – he added – have turned the city into an extermination camp”. Horrors destined to repeat themselves. The war, the NATO secretary general reiterated Jens Stoltenberg“It can last a long time, many months and even years”.
The White House on the hunt for Putin’s daughters
The United States has announced a new wave of financial sanctions that will hit, this time, the assets and accounts of the daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Sberbank, which holds a third of the country’s banking assets. Maria Vorontsova, specialist in rare children’s diseases, and Katerina Tikhonova are the daughters of Putin and his first wife, Lyudmila Shkrebneva. Sanctions also for the wife and daughter of the foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and for members of the Russian Security Council. “These people – the White House announced – have grown rich on the shoulders of the Russian people. Some of them are responsible for supporting Putin’s war on Ukraine ”. Furthermore, any American investment in Russia is banned. Washington aims to “return to Russia the standard of living at the time of the Soviet Union” in the 1980s. Sanctions, confirmed the American president Joe Biden, are directly linked to the Bucha massacre, where hundreds of bodies of civilians were found killed, many with tied hands and feet. “Russia – added Biden – will pay a high and immediate price for its atrocities”.
Putin’s daughters hit by US and EU sanctions, goodbye to bank accounts and luxury homes
by Enrico Franceschini
The super yacht of the oligarch who “financed disinformation” was seized
The Justice Department indicted the Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeev for spreading false information and propaganda in favor of Putin all over the world. This was announced by the Attorney general Merrick Garland, appeared so far on the sidelines. The head of American justice defined the oligarch “one of the major sources of funding for the separatist campaign in Crimea”. The oligarch’s $ 90 million super yacht was seized in Mallorca, Spain Viktor Vekselberganother close ally of Putin.
EU, high tension between states on sanctions
In Brussels, diplomacy failed to get the fifth sanctions proposed by the European Commission approved, starting with the embargo on all types of coal produced by Russia. The decision has been postponed until tomorrow, but in the meantime tensions remain between the Member States. Lithuania, one of Ukraine’s strongest allies, called the sanctions imposed in response to the horrors of war “inadequate”. “Coal – declared the Foreign Minister Gabriel Landsbergis – four banks, a ban on ports and borders, with some exceptions, do not represent a package of adequate measures. A feeble response is just an invitation to carry out more atrocities. It must be stronger ”. Lithuania is the first member of the European Union to have announced a stop to importing Russian gas, but other states are more undecided. Poland and the Baltic states have called for a total ban on the import of fossil fuels, while Germany, which receives 55 percent of its gas from Russia, is concerned about the consequences of unemployment and the possible spike in fuel prices. Meanwhile, Germany and Italy have rejected Putin’s request to pay for gas supplies in rubles.
Europe investigates Moscow: “We collect evidence of war crimes”
by Giuliano Foschini
Orban freezes the European Union but not NATO
Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban he declared that his country “would have no difficulty” in paying for Russia’s gas supplies in rubles. Orban said he is ready to do so if Moscow asks. The declaration risks undermining the European compact front, with Germany and Italy having already rejected Putin’s request. The Hungarian premier also invited Putin to Hungary for peace talks with Ukraine, France and Germany. Putin was one of the first leaders to congratulate Orban on his victory in the elections, hailed in Italy by Matteo Salvini e Giorgia Meloniby the exponent of the French far right Marine Le Penand by the former American president Donald Trump. But after Putin’s proposal for a “partnership”, Orban wanted to clarify his position: “The Russians know that we are part of NATO and that we are adversaries. We condemn the aggression of Ukraine ”.
The UN will vote tomorrow to expel Russia from the Human Rights Council
Tomorrow morning the UN vote on the expulsion of Russia from the Human Rights Council. Latvia took a tough stand overnight, calling on all member states to vote for the exclusion of Russia. The Latvian Ambassador to the United Nations, Andrejs Pildegovics, spoke of “farce and shame in having an aggressor state in the Council”. “Farce” is the term also used by the US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield. There should be no surprises about the result. At the beginning of March 140 member states had voted on a resolution condemning Russia for the invasion of Ukraine and called for the immediate withdrawal of the soldiers.
Zelensky points the finger: “The UN did not defend us, change or disband”
by our correspondent Anna Lombardi
