White House announces “a major package of sanctions” against Russia over Navalny’s death

John Kirby, one of the White House spokesmen, announced on Tuesday that the United States would announce “a major package of sanctions” against Russia over the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

The sanctions would be aimed at “holding Russia accountable” for Navalny’s death and punishing Russian President Vladimir Putin for the “brutal” and “brutal” war he has waged against Ukraine, he explained during a press conference.

The spokesperson did not specify what sanctions the United States would specifically impose on Russia, a country that has been hit by multiple economic sanctions by both Washington and the European Union (EU) since it launched its invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago. Is under.

Joe Biden’s administration has imposed a number of sanctions against Russia, including actions to isolate oligarchs close to Putin, sanctions against the energy sector and the exclusion of Russian banks from the SWIFT international interbank communications system, which has hurt the Russian economy. Is isolated from the international financial system. ,

America accused Putin

Last Friday, shortly after Navalny’s death became public, Biden gave a speech at the White House in which he held Putin directly responsible for the death and warned that he would consider “various options” for responding to the incident. Were evaluating.

The US president had already announced after meeting Putin in Geneva in 2021 that there would be “catastrophic consequences” for Russia if Navalny died in prison.

Russian officials said Navalny, 47, died after feeling unwell after a walk in the prison where he was being held and that although medical services tried to revive him “for more than half an hour”, he Lost his life.

Navalny survived an attempt to poison him with the chemical agent Novichok in 2020 and his health became a cause of increasing concern after he announced a hunger strike between March and April 2021, having lost much of his weight in the weeks since.

Navalny’s mother and widow have questioned the Russian authorities’ version of the opposition leader’s death and demanded that the politician’s body be handed over to them to find out what caused him to lose his life.