The US Just Sanctioned Putin's Favorite Biker Gang

Reuters/RIA Novosti/Alexei Druzhinin/PoolRussia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (L) listens as Alexander Zaldostanov (R), president of the motorcycling club Night Wolves, gestures while speaking at the club in Moscow, July 7, 2009.

The US has expanded Russian sanctions to a massive biker gang known as the "Night Wolves," which took part in armed fighting in Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Those sanctions will prevent members of that gang - whose leader is tight with Vladimir Putin - from traveling to the US or doing business with people and businesses tied to the US, according to the Journal.

Other groups and people that were sanctioned include separatists in eastern Urkaine, the Donetsk People's Republic, and a man whose blamed for financing Crimean separatists, the Journal reported.

The "Night Wolves" are an incredibly patriotic, 5,000-member biker club, and Putin has become friends with its leader, Alexander Zaldostanov, a guy known as "The Surgeon," The Telegraph reported earlier its year.

Putin, who's known for showing off his macho credentials, met the group in 2009 and has very close ties to them, according to The Telegraph. Last year, Putin even gave "The Surgeon" an "Order of Honor" for "active work in the patriotic upbringing of the young," The Telegraph reported.