U.S. targets Russians for Navalny poisoning
7 sanctioned as officials signal new, harder line
WASHINGTON • The Biden administration on Tuesday announced punitive sanctions on senior Russian government figures over the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny and reiterated a demand that Navalny be released.
The sanctions block access to financial or other assets in the United States for seven top figures around Russian President Vladimir Putin.
They are largely symbolic, but represent the first Biden administration action against Russia.
U.S. officials who described the measures said they are a signal that the new administration will treat Russia differently than the Trump administration did.
“So to be clear, the United States is neither seeking to reset our relations with Russia, nor are we seeking to escalate,” said one official.
The Biden administration also announced new export restrictions on items that could be used to manufacture chemical weapons and a widening of existing sanctions under a law controlling use of such weapons.
The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the actions before they were imposed, did not release names of those targeted.
Navalny was poisoned in August 2020. He recovered in Germany, but was jailed upon his return to Moscow in January. He was sentenced to more than two years behind bars on what human rights advocates call manufactured charges.
The U.S. sanctions largely mirror actions taken by the European Union last fall. At the time, the Trump administration declined to join the action. Former president Donald Trump had been reluctant to assign blame for the attack on Navalny.
The EU added sanctions last month over Navalny's imprisonment.
“Russia is drifting towards an authoritarian state and driving away from Europe,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said. “It is interested in confrontation and disengagement from the European Union.”
One of the U.S. officials who spoke Tuesday said the United States shares Borrell's assessment.
U.S. officials said the new actions are based on U.S. intelligence findings that implicated the Russian state with “high confidence.” Navalny was poisoned by the nerve agent Novichok, which was developed as a Soviet weapon of war.
The sanctions in response to Navalny's poisoning are just the first in a series of steps the administration is taking to hold Russia to account for destabilizing actions in four areas, senior administration officials said.