US poised to sanction Russia over its treatment of Navalny

Bloomberg

The Biden administration is set to announce sanctions against Russia over the poisoning and jailing of opposition leader Alexey Navalny, according to people familiar with the matter.
The penalties — like those just approved by European Union ambassadors — will match sanctions the EU and the UK imposed earlier on other Russians allied to President Vladimir Putin as punishment for the attempted murder of Navalny, the official said.
They would be the first sanctions ordered by President Joe Biden against Russia and would set the tone for relations with Putin. The ruble recovered sharply after the news, reversing earlier losses as investors were encouraged by the
relatively narrow scope of the sanctions.
Viktor Zolotov, the head of Russia’s National Guard; Igor Krasnov, the country’s prosecutor general; Alexander Kalashnikov, the Federal Penitentiary Service chief; and Alexander Bastrykin, who leads the country’s Investigative Committee, are the targets of the EU’s latest penalties, according to three people familiar with the decision. The measures are expected to be formally adopted by the bloc’s 27 members later this week, said one of the people, who requested anonymity to discuss a private process.
The US measures will involve the State, Treasury and Commerce Departments, according to a congressional aide.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia would “definitely respond” to the new
restrictions, though he didn’t elaborate.
The targets of EU and UK asset freezes and travel bans in October were Aleksandr Bortnikov, leader of Russia’s domestic spy agency; Sergei Kiriyenko, first deputy chief of staff in the presidential administration; Andrei Yarin, head of the presidential administration’s domestic policy directorate; Aleksei Krivoruchko and Pavel Popov, two deputy ministers of defense; and Sergei Menyaylo, Putin’s envoy to the Siberian Federal District.
The bloc also froze the assets of one Russian entity: the State Scientific Research Institute
for Organic Chemistry and Technology.
Navalny returned to Russia in January after being treated in Germany for a nerve agent attack. He was detained shortly after landing at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport. Western governments and Navalny have accused the Kremlin of being behind the attempted assassination. Russia denies that and has said that Navalny’s imprisonment is an internal matter.
Last month, Biden called for Navalny’s release, saying he was “targeted for exposing corruption and should be released immediately and without
condition.”
Since then, Navalny has been sentenced and begun serving a two-and-a-half-year term. Last week, he was moved to a notorious penal camp in the Vladimir region about 60 miles (100 kilometers) east of the Russian capital.
During his first call with the Russian leader, in late January, Biden said he “made it clear to President Putin in a manner very different from my predecessor that the days the United States rolling over in the face of Russia’s aggressive actions, interfering with our elections, cyber-attacks, poisoning
citizens are over.”
Biden called the jailing of Navalny “politically motivated.” His administration also has Moscow in its sights for what US intelligence agencies indicate was Russia’s likely role in the SolarWinds Corp. cyber-attack.