US preparing to impose sanctions on Russia for Navalny poisoning: Report

Biden administration is preparing to sanction Russia over the arbitrary detention of Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny in coordination with the European Union (EU) next week, at least two administration officials familiar with the development informed sources of CNN. Both US and EU officials, in a parallel decision, will roll out the details of the punitive measures and their exact timing in the days ahead. In its first stern move against Moscow under the Biden administration, the US aims to convey a “strong message” to Russia against committing human rights violations, unlike former President Donald trump’s diplomatic approach. 

Biden, according to informants, will sign an executive order that will tackle border challenges with Russia alongside other strict measures that the US president will impose for assaults on American democracy, including the SolarWinds hack and US soldiers' bounties in Afghanistan. A US intelligence report had alleged that the Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for neutralizing US coalition forces in Afghanistan, however, the Trump administration had deliberated for months about the actions to be taken against Russia.

Press secretary for President Vladimir V. Putin, Dmitry Peskov, had alleged that Russia has not been confronted with this accusation, and “if someone will, we will respond,” speaking at a state presser. In the coming weeks, according to the officials, Biden will issue a retaliatory response to Moscow reversing Trump’s approach, sanctioning Russian politicians, much like the US had under the Obama administration to keep a check on Russia’s aggressive actions towards Ukraine.

Meanwhile, an official on condition of anonymity informed the network that Joe Biden will shortly exercise a tougher stance against Russia as he will sign two executive order 13661 from 2014 that was imposed on Russia for the situation in Crimea and human rights violations on Ukrainians, and 13382 non-proliferation sanctions signed in 2005 aimed at freezing the assets of proliferators of weapons of mass destruction in Russia and isolating it financially by prohibiting all US transactions of the sanctioned designees. 

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EU approves sanctions

Earlier on Monday, European Union approved sanctions against at least four Russian justices and law enforcement officers directly involved in the detention of Moscow’s anti-corruption campaigner Navalny. The officials will be banned from travelling across the European bloc and their foreign assets will be frozen. This comes after UN’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions Agnes Callamard, said in a virtual meeting that it was time Russia was held accountable for the poisoning of Navalny, as she called for an international probe and ‘immediate’ release of the Kremlin critic.

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