US to announce new sanctions against Russia

— The White House said Tuesday it is preparing additional “major sanctions” on Russia in response to opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s death last week in an Arctic penal colony.

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the sanctions, on the eve of the twoyear anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, “will be a substantial package covering a range of different elements of the Russian defense industrial base, and sources of revenue for the Russian economy that power Russia’s war machine, that power Russia’s aggression, and that power Russia’s repression.”

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. had not determined how Navalny had died, but insisted that the ultimate responsibility lay with Putin.

“Regardless of the scientific answer, Putin’s responsible for it,” he told reporters.

Russian authorities have said the cause of Navalny’s death is still unknown and have refused to release his body for the next two weeks as the preliminary inquest continues, members of his team said.

The Treasury Department declined to comment on the details of the upcoming sanctions. Brian Nelson, the department’s Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, is in Europe this week to continue working on Russia sanctions ahead of the invasion’s two-year anniversary.

So far, the U.S. and its allies have sanctioned thousands of Russian people and firms, frozen Russian Central Bank funds, banned certain Russian goods, restricted Russian banks’ access to SWIFT — the dominant system for global financial transactions — and imposed a $60-per-barrel price cap on Russian oil and diesel, among other measures.

Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that South Korea should take its concerns about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent luxury car gift to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to the U.N. Security Council (UNSC), in a sarcastic response to Seoul’s remarks that labeled the gift as a violation of U.N. sanctions.

“If Seoul has concerns about the ‘adherence to U.N. sanctions’ regarding North Korea, then it should address it directly at the U.N. Security Council Sanctions Committee, rather than rushing to the microphones,” Moscow’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quoted as saying in a statement from the Russian Embassy in Seoul, Wednesday.

Zakharova was referring to remarks made by South Korean foreign ministry spokesperson Lim Soo-suk during a regular briefing the previous day.

In response to a query about Putin’s gifting of a car to the North Korean leader, Lim stated, “All U.N. member states have the obligation to fully comply with U.N. sanctions resolutions against North Korea,” acknowledging that the shipment violates a U.N. resolution that prohibits the supply of luxury items to North Korea.

The Russian president recently gifted the North Korean leader with a Russian-made Aurus Senat limousine, as confirmed by both countries on Tuesday, in the latest demonstration of the burgeoning ties between the two neighbors.

According to Russia’s Tass agency, the vehicle is the version that Putin is often seen to be chauffeured around in. During their summit last September at the Vostochny Space Center in Russia, Putin gave Kim a closer look at the car and offered him the opportunity to take a seat in the vehicle.

In her statement, Zakharova also stated that international sanctions against Russia as causing damage to public access to food, medicine and vaccines for the Russian populace.

“By the way, let’s discuss with the entire committee about the 12,000 or so illegal sanctions against Russia and the West’s sanction wars that undermine the nature of international law,” she said.

The spokeswoman said it would be interesting to know what pressure Washington is exerting on Seoul in order to hinder its legitimacy in conducting trade with other countries.

Moscow’s strained response to Seoul comes amid a deterioration in bilateral relations. South Korea has accused Russia of engaging in arms trade with North Korea, an allegation that Russia has denied, while Moscow has repeatedly expressed discontent regarding Seoul’s potential weapons support to Ukraine.