Canada sanctions Russian President Vladimir Putin's daughters

Canada is sanctioning Russian President Vladimir Putin's two adult daughters, as part of a fresh round of punitive measures aimed at more than two dozen 'close associates' of Putin, including Russian oligarchs and their family members.

The pair—Mariya Vorontsova (Putina) and Katerina Tikhonova— are now subject to fiscal and other penalties, as part of a growing list under the “Special Economic Measures Act” that their father is already on.

Putin rarely speaks about his daughters, their identities have never been confirmed by the Kremlin, and neither woman has confirmed publicly that the Russian leader is her father.

The United States moved to sanction the daughters a few weeks ago. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government is following suit, after a host of world leaders met virtually on Tuesday morning to discuss the war in Ukraine.

Mariya is a doctor who, according to the U.S. government, "leads state-funded programs that have received billions of dollars from the Kremlin toward genetics research and are personally overseen by Putin.” Katerina has been described as a “tech executive whose work supports the GoR [Russian government] and defence industry.”