US, EU Target Russia With Sanctions Over Navalny Assassination Attempt and Imprisonment

The U.S. and the European Union announced coordinated sanctions on Russia Tuesday for the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his arrest and detention that followed.

Senior U.S. administration officials told reporters during a briefing call ahead of the public release of the measures that the U.S. is adopting the new sanctions, export restrictions and visa restrictions on Russia following an intelligence community assessment on the poisoning of Navalny that determined with “high confidence” that officers with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) used a nerve agent to poison him.

The U.S. is sanctioning seven senior members of the Russian government, including FSB director Aleksandr Bortnikov, as well as 14 entities that are involved in the chemical and biological industrial base in Russia, officials said.

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