Sharjah24 – AFP: The White House has imposed sanctions on two daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin because it has "seen a pattern" where Putin an Russian oligarchs "stash assets and resources in the bank accounts of their family members," Press Secretary Jen Psaki says at a briefing in Washington.

On sanctioning two daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Jen Psaki, White House Press Secretary, said, “We’ve seen a pattern over time of President Putin and Russian oligarchs stash assets and resources in the bank accounts of their family members. And so this was an effort to get at those assets, and so that’s why these individuals were sanctioned."

Commenting on this, the White House Press Secretary added, "There are tough days ahead for the Ukrainian people. There’s a likely scenario where this could go on for some time. And even as they’ve removed their forces and they’ve retreated from Kyiv, they’ve retreated from the north and the west, and they’re consolidating forces in the east and in the Donbas. And we’ve warned that we’re entering a new phase of the conflict that could last for some time. It doesn’t mean it will look exactly the same, or the needs or the resources will be exactly the same."

She concluded, "The Russian Central Bank is making strained policy decisions to artificially prop up the ruble. So it’s not actually on the rise. It is being artificially propped up by limitations that they are putting in place, including barring banks from selling dollars to customers. Russian brokerages are not allowing foreign clients to sell securities. Exporters are being forced to sell 80% of their dollar revenues and buy rubles. So they are essentially manipulating it on their end."