Russian news report on US sanctions over Navalny

Russian news channel RU-24 said in its broadcast Wednesday that the new U.S. sanctions against Russia over the poisoning and subsequent jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny were used as a ''PR effect.''

Anchor Dmitry Shchyugarev called the word sanctions a ''big word'' which spreads panic and causes fluctuation in the stock market.

The Biden administration sanctioned seven mid-level and senior Russian officials on Tuesday, along with more than a dozen government entities.

The measures, emphasizing the use of the Russian nerve agent as a banned chemical weapon, marked the Biden administration's first sanctions against associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

RU-24 said Russia's expectations were ''slightly different'' regarding the sanctions, despite the the fact that the news made headlines on Tuesday.

Shchyugarev said that everything will ''calm down,'' adding it will not be the first or last time that sanctions are imposed on Russia.

The Biden administration also announced sanctions under the U.S. Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act for Russian entities, including those the U.S. said worked to research, develop and test chemical weapons.

The U.S. intelligence community concluded with high confidence that Russia's Federal Security Service used the Russian nerve agent Novichok on Navalny last August.

Russia says it had no role in any attack on the dissident.