- The US Treasury Department announced a new round of sanctions against "Russian and Kremlin" elites.
- Those sanctioned included the family of Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for Vladimir Putin.
- Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said those targeted had enabled "Putin's unjustified and unprovoked war."
The United States unveiled new sanctions on Friday targeting Russian officials and oligarchs who it said had enabled an unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine.
Those sanctioned include the wife and children Dmitriy Peskov, the man who has served as spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin for the last two decades.
In a statement, the US Treasury Department accused the family of living "luxurious lifestyles that are incongruous with Pekov's civil servant salary."
Peskov's daughter, Elizabeta, 24, is something of a social media influencer, with nearly 250,000 followers on Instagram, where she can be seen wining, dining, and exercising. The day after Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, she posted the words "no to war" on an Instagram Live story.
The story was later removed. Her last post is from Feb. 14.
Russia is preparing to ban Instagram, according to a government spokesperson, in apparent retaliation for the Meta-owned platform flagging content from accounts controlled by the Kremlin.
Others sanctioned Friday include Viktor Feliksovich Vekselberg, a businessman with close ties to the Kremlin and an estimated net worth of more than $6 billion, according to the Treasury Department. Assets now frozen by the US include a $90 million jet and and a $90 million yacht named Tango.
Ten people on the management board of VTB Bank were also sanctioned, as were 11 members of Russia's legislature who voted to recognize the Donbas region of Ukraine — occupied by Russian forces — as independent nations.
The sanctions mean that all assets owned or partly by the individuals in the US are now frozen.
"Treasury continues to hold Russian officials to account for enabling Putin's unjustified and unprovoked war," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. "Today's actions also further isolates the severely damaged Russian economy by prohibiting trade in products that are key to the economic and financial interests of all Russian elites."
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