US, UK impose sanctions on 7 Russian intelligence operatives over poisoning of Navalny

The United States and Britain have imposed joint sanctions on Friday against men they said were Russian intelligence operatives linked to the 2020 nerve agent on the Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. Seven men were targeted by both nations with sanctions as well as Russia was issued a joint stringent warning over its use of chemical weapons. The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development office and the US State Department mentioned that they were freezing the assets of these men having links to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and that they would be subject to travel bans too.

Washington separately issued sanctions on another two men and four Russian institutes it said were associated with what they think to be an assassination attempt against Navalny.

US and UK impose sanctions on 7 Russian men 

In a joint statement, both the governments said that the men have been charged on grounds of being 'directly responsible' for either carrying out or panning the poisoning of Navalny on August 20 last year. The Kremlin critic was flown to Germany for medical treatment post the poisoning in Siberia with what western experts have concluded to be the military nerve agent Novichok. 

Moscow has, however, dismissed the allegations, accusing the West of a smear campaign against it. The updated list of the sanctions was published by the government on the first anniversary of Navalny's poisoning, including seven new names. British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab mentioned the move as a strict warning to Russia mentioning that any use of chemical weaponry by the country violates international law adding that a transparent criminal investigation must be held. 

Maria Zakharova, Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, took to social media and mentioned, "Unilateral sanctions are illegitimate as they have not been approved by the UN Security Council." "Russia has destroyed the chemical weapons arsenal in line with international obligations it has taken upon itself. You can't say the same about the NATO countries, for example, the USA," she said.

The accused who have been added in the UK documents are Alexey Alexandrov, Vladimir Panyaev, Ivan Osipov, Vladimir Bogdanov, Kirill Vasilyev, Stanislav Makshakov and Alexei Sedov.

The US Treasury, apart from putting sanctions on these 7 men, added two additional Russian officials it said were involved in the poisoning--Konstantin Kudryavtsev and Artur Zhirov--as well as two other Russian institutes it had doubts over. Records of phone and travel showing some of the operatives were present in the Siberian city of Tomsk were also produced by the British Government as evidence. 

(IMAGE- AP)