The US administration has approved a package of sanctions targeting Russian institutions and officials linked to the case of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
According to a senior official in President Joe Biden's administration, in a phone briefing to reporters today, the United States has decided to impose sanctions on seven senior government officials in Russia, tighten export restrictions to Russia, and blacklist 14 entities. The official stated that these sanctions are part of the robust response from the United States to the poisoning and imprisonment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The Treasury Department is imposing sanctions on the seven high-ranking Russian officials, joining the State Department and the Department of Commerce as part of these measures. The US official revealed that a list of 14 entities subject to the "largest export restrictions" will be published today in the Federal Register, noting that nine are Russian, three from Germany, and one from Switzerland, with the latter being a government-related research institute in Russia, indicating that all are involved in activities that contradict US national security and foreign policy interests. The US official pointed out that the sanctions on Russian entities and individuals were coordinated with the European Union in light of the Navalny case. The official emphasized that US policies towards Russia will be different from those pursued by the previous US administration. He stressed that intelligence assessments concluded that the Russian authorities were behind Navalny's poisoning with a nerve agent. The announcement of the US sanctions came just minutes after the European Union took similar action, announcing sanctions against four senior officials in Russian law enforcement agencies. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier today confirmed that Moscow would not leave the US sanctions against Russia unanswered.
