Biden is preparing major sanctions over the Russian government’s jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny and is expected to launch them in coordination with European allies in the coming weeks, people familiar with the matter said.
Regarding sanctions against Russia, the Biden Administration previously inherited the Trump administration’s comprehensive sanctions package, which was handed over in a transition period, according to U.S. media outlet Politico. Among other things, Trump’s sanctions package also proposed revoking visas for certain Russian officials and restricting exports to Russia of certain dual-use items that could be used to create weapons of mass destruction.
While inheriting the previous administration’s package of sanctions measures, Biden’s national security team previously said it was prepared to chart its own course.
Navalny’s poisoning by Russian security forces last August and his recent incarceration in a Moscow prison were deemed urgent enough to warrant a response, people familiar with internal discussions said, and several Russian experts said the U.S. should not have waited for the Time to respond, especially after a Russian court last week paved the way for Navalny’s transfer to prison custody.
Navalny, 44, was poisoned last August with a nerve agent, a deadly substance considered a banned chemical weapon. The Russian Kremlin has denied involvement, but the U.S. State Department publicly blamed the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) for the attack last December.
After months of treatment in Germany, Navalny recovered and flew back to Moscow, but was promptly arrested. Earlier this month, he was sentenced by Russian authorities to nearly three years in prison, which the European Court of Human Rights ruled was unlawful. Navalny’s arrest and imprisonment has stirred a huge wave of protests and international condemnation across Russia.
The U.K. Daily Mail argues that the U.S. is still lagging behind its allies on this issue. In response to Navalny’s poisoning last year, the EU sanctioned six Russians and a Russian state-owned scientific institution last October, and at a meeting this Monday, announced its intention to sanction four more senior Russian officials over Navalny’s treatment.
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