The White House is expected to announce President Joe Biden’s first sanctions against Russia over the Russian government’s poisoning and detention of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, a State Department official confirmed to ABC News Monday.
The Biden administration sanctioned seven “senior” Russian officials and added one government research institute and 13 businesses to its export restrictions, senior administration officials announced Tuesday morning.
The sanctions were taken in concert with the European Union, with the bloc’s 27 members announcing Tuesday penalties on four Russian officials for Navalny’s imprisonment — its first sanctions under its new human rights sanction program.
The names of the sanctioned Russian officials and 14 entities added to the Commerce Department’s export control list were not yet published Tuesday.
Navalny, the leading opposition figure to Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been moved to a remote penal colony to serve his two-and-a-half-year sentence for a probation violation after returning to Russia from Germany, where he was treated after being poisoned with a chemical weapon.