The White House said the United States, in coordination with its European allies, had taken action to impose sanctions on eight wealthy Russians and members of their families and to impose visa restrictions on 19 other Russian citizens, BGNES reported.

Biden: The Invasion of the Russian Dictator in a Foreign Country is Costly to the Whole World

During a speech on the state of the union on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden warned Russian oligarchs that the US Department of Justice had set up a working group targeting “crimes” committed by wealthy people in support of President of Russia Vladimir Putin’s recent military action in Ukraine.

A memorandum has now been issued.

“The United States and governments around the world will work to identify and freeze the assets of Russia's elite and members of their families in our respective jurisdictions - their yachts, luxury apartments, money and other illicit profits,” the memorandum states.

According to the document, the full blocking sanctions, which ban the use of US-based property and block Americans from operating on the property, apply to individuals believed to be “giving opportunities” to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Among those mentioned are Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov; Nikolay Tokarev, his wife Galina, his daughter Maya and two luxury real estate companies; Boris Rothenberg, his wife Karina and his sons Roman and Boris; Arkady Rotenberg, his sons Paul and Igor and his daughter Lilia; Sergei Chemezov, his wife Ekaterina, his son Stanislav and his stepdaughter Anastasia; Igor Shuvalov, his five companies, his wife Olga, his son Yevgeny and his company (as well as an airplane), and his daughter Maria and her company; Yevgeny Prigozhin, his three companies, his wife Polina, daughter Lyubov and son Pavel; Alisher Usmanov, as well as his private plane and superyacht, which was detained by German authorities and is “one of the largest” such vessels in the world.

These sanctions and confiscations of “illicit profits” come days after the US president highlighted Russia's economic problems with sanctions, saying Washington was in the process of coordinating a campaign to curtail Russia's access to technology, thus weakened the country's army and economy.

“We are uniting with our European allies to find and confiscate your yachts, your luxury apartments, your private jets,” he said shortly after Washington took action to block Russian flights from US airspace. “We are coming for your ill-gotten gains.”

Another 19 Russian oligarchs and 47 members of their families or close associates have been subject to new visa restrictions imposed by the US State Department. Their names were not mentioned in the report.

/Nova

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