Canada on Tuesday targeted 21 Russians, close to Vladimir Putin, and four financial institutions and banks, in a new wave of sanctions in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine.

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“We are targeting banks and oligarchs around the Putin regime, as well as the one I would call his partner,” Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly told reporters in Ottawa.

Among the people targeted by these new sanctions is Alina Kabaeva, a former Russian Olympic gymnast who, according to some media and opponents, has a relationship with President Vladimir Putin, which he denied in 2008.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, which quotes US officials, Alina Kabaeva is described by a confidential US intelligence report as a beneficiary of Vladimir Putin's fortune.

She is the "Chairman of the Board of the National Media Group (NMG), a holding company that owns significant shares in almost all major Russian federal media outlets that reproduce Russian government propaganda," according to the European Service for Media. external action.

Canada has also added to this list the Russian Agricultural Bank as well as Investtradebank and two fund management companies. Their assets are frozen and their leaders are prohibited from entering Canada.

Mélanie Joly said the sanctions were aimed at "stifling the Putin regime", and she praised the EU for banning the bulk of Russian oil imports to its territory on Monday by the end of the year in order to dry up financing Moscow's war in Ukraine.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukrainian soil on February 24, Canada has imposed sanctions on more than 1,050 individuals and entities in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.