Biden sanctions Russia over poisoning
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WASHINGTON – The U.S. imposed new sanctions on Russia Tuesday in response to the poisoning and continued detention of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the first of several steps the Biden administration plans to take to confront Russian aggression.
The U.S. sanctioned seven senior members of the Russian government and added 14 entities to the Department of Commerce’s blacklist, mirroring sanctions imposed earlier by the European Union and the United Kingdom for the attempted murder of Navalny. The sanctions prevent the top figures allied with Russian President Vladimir Putin from accessing financial and property assets in the U.S.
The intelligence community determined with “high confidence” that the Federal Security Service used the nerve agent Novichok to poison Navalny last August, according to officials. Russia has denied accusations that it was behind the attack.
Navalny, an anti-corruption activist and one of Putin’s fiercest critics, returned to Russia in January after recovering from the nerve agent attack in Germany.
He was detained shortly after his arrival in Moscow and sentenced to two years and eight months in prison for violating the terms of his probation while he was treated abroad. Navalny’s detention has sparked widespread protests across Russia.
The sanctions are the first ordered by President Joe Biden against Moscow as the administration reassesses relations with Putin and considers punitive action over Navalny’s attempted assassination, interference in U.S. 2020 election, the SolarWinds cyber attack and reported bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill coalition troops in Afghanistan.
The sanctions, though largely symbolic, signal a new approach from the previous administration and were coordinated with the EU, which was also expected to place additional restrictions on Moscow Tuesday, officials said. The Trump administration declined to punish Russia over Navalny’s poisoning last summer despite international outrage over the attack.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Tuesday the penalties were aimed at putting the U.S. on the “same timeline” as the EU, noting that the administration was still reviewing Russia’s recent adversarial actions.
“The president and his national security team reserves the right to respond at the time and manner of their choosing and sanctions are part of that,” she said.
The Treasury Department sanctioned the following officials: Alexander Bortnikov, director of Russia’s Federal Security Service, first deputy chief of staff Sergei Kiriyenko, first deputy chief of staff Andrei Yarin, deputy defense minister Aleksei Krivoruchko, deputy defense minister Pavel Popov, prosecutor general Igor Krasnov and federal prisons director Alexander Kalashnikov.
The penalties also included an expansion of sanctions under the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act, new export restrictions on items that could be used for biological agent and chemical production as well as visa restrictions, according to senior administration officials.
The administration also renewed calls for Navalny’s immediate release.