Hundreds of new sanctions have been placed on Russia by the US and the EU on the eve of the second anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine and a week after Alexei Navalny’s death.
Among those targeted by Washington’s more than 500 new sanctions are people involved in Mr Navalny’s imprisonment and three Russian officials the US has said are connected to his death.
The Russian opposition leader, who was a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, fell unconscious and died suddenly last Friday in an Arctic penal colony.
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President Joe Biden, who has condemned the death, met Mr Navalny’s widow and daughter on Thursday.
The US Treasury sanctions target Russia and its war machine – in the largest number of restrictions imposed in one go since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.
The Biden administration imposed new trade restrictions on 93 entities from Russia, China, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Kyrgyzstan, India and South Korea for supporting Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.
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Putin ‘will pay an even steeper price’
The president said in a statement on Friday: “The American people and people around the world understand that the stakes of this fight extend far beyond Ukraine.
“If Putin does not pay the price for his death and destruction, he will keep going. And the costs to the United States – along with our Nato allies and partners in Europe and around the world – will rise.”
As well as targeting those associated with Mr Navalny, the US has also hit “Russia’s financial sector, defence industrial base, procurement networks and sanctions evaders across multiple continents”, Mr Biden said.
The penalties “will ensure Putin pays an even steeper price for his aggression abroad and repression at home,” he added.
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The EU’s sanctions
The EU measures were against people and organisations it suspects of undermining Ukraine, focusing on “members of the judiciary, local politicians and people responsible for the illegal deportation and military re-education of Ukrainian children”.
It takes the total number of sanctions imposed on Russia by the EU to over 2,000, including some placed on Mr Putin and his associates.
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EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the 106 sanctions against individuals and 88 aimed at “entities”, often companies, banks, government agencies or other organisations, showed the bloc’s “determination to dent Russia’s war machine and help Ukraine win its legitimate fight for self-defence”.
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Companies making electronic components, which the EU believes could have military as well as civilian uses, were among 27 entities accused of “directly supporting Russia’s military and industrial complex in its war of aggression against Ukraine”, a statement said.
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Those companies – including some based in India, Sri Lanka, China, Serbia, Kazakhstan, Thailand and Turkey – face tougher export restrictions.
The names should be published in a few days’ time.
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Since the start of the war, the US has put more than 4,000 officials, oligarchs, firms, banks and others under Russia-related sanctions.
