Putin calls on billionaires to pay taxes in Russia

MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on billionaires to pay taxes at home amid fears that a new wave of western sanctions against the country over the annexation of Crimea may hit businessmen.

At a meeting Thursday with Russia's richest men in Moscow, Putin said businesses "ought to register on Russian territory and pay taxes in our motherland."

The call has come in the wake of Western threats to impose another round of sanctions.

On Monday, the U.S. and the European Union announced sanctions against a limited number of individuals they say were involved in the unlawful referendum in Crimea over joining Russia. Most of those targeted, however, were not businessmen but political figureheads, who mocked the sanctions and said they had no assets abroad that were at risk.