Biden administration sets sanctions on Russia after opposition leader Alexei Navalny s poisoning
By Ellen Knickmeyer
Soviet-era nerve agent used to poison Putin critic, Germany says
Germany said test showed that the Russian opposition leader was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok, the same poison used in 2018 on a former Russian spy.
Senior administration officials did not immediately identify the Russian officials targeted but said some of them had been on a list of prominent business and political figures Navalny had urged the West to sanction.
Some opposition figures and their supporters said the latest U.S. measures, restricting the U.S. travel and banking of some Russian government figures, didn t go far enough to get the attention of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia critic William Browder, a London-based investor, tweeted he feared U.S. sanctions would be way too little and not touch Putin’s billionaire cronies.
US sets sanctions over Russia opposition leader s poisoning
In this Saturday, Feb. 20, 2021 file photo, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny gestures as he stands behind a grass of the cage in the Babuskinsky District Court in Moscow, Russia. Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny was transported to a prison 100km away from Moscow. Navalny was taken to a prison in Pokrov city after Moscow city court rejected appeal against his prison sentence on Saturday, Feb. 27, 2021. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
Published March 02. 2021 9:45AM
Ellen Knickmeyer, Associated Press
The Biden administration announced sanctions of Russian officials and businesses Tuesday for a nearly fatal nerve-agent attack upon opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his subsequent jailing.
Kremlin Condemns Sanctions As U.S. Set To Punish Russia for Navalny Poisoning
On 3/2/21 at 8:35 AM EST
With the U.S. reportedly set to impose sanctions on Moscow linked to the treatment of jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has hit back at Russia being on the receiving end of international punishment.
Reuters reported that the U.S. could impose sanctions for the Novichok poisoning of Navalny, who fell ill on a flight in Siberia in August 2020 and was arrested upon his arrival in Moscow in January following his recuperation in Berlin.
Sources told the agency that the U.S. would act under the executive orders, one issued after Russia invaded Crimea, and the other issued in 2005 against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.