The United States and Great Britain impose new sanctions on the anniversary

London/Washington. A year after the toxic attack on Russian critic in the Kremlin Alexei Navalny, the United States and Britain imposed sanctions on several Russian citizens. The actions are directed against seven employees of Russia’s domestic intelligence service, who were said to be directly linked to the attack, the British government announced on Friday. The travel ban applies to those affected, and their accounts will also be frozen.

In addition to punitive measures against seven employees of the Russian domestic intelligence, the US government also imposed sanctions on two other individuals and several institutions of the Russian intelligence and scientific apparatus.

The State Department said the steps now identified clearly indicate that there is no impunity for the use of chemical weapons. Any use of chemical weapons is unacceptable and violates international standards.

joint statement

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab made a similar statement in London: “We are sending a clear signal that any use of chemical weapons by the Russian state violates international law and that a transparent investigation must be carried out.”

The British and US governments issued a joint statement in which they again strongly condemned the attack on Navalny and called on Russia to abide by its international obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention. She added that punitive measures taken by international partners in the Navalny case are welcome, and further steps will be coordinated here.

Navalny was nearly killed by the chemical warfare agent Novichok on August 20, 2020. In memory of the attack, he published a guest article in several Western daily newspapers, including the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”. In it, the West called for sanctions against the oligarchs who supported Russian President Vladimir Putin. Chancellor Angela Merkel traveled to Moscow for talks with Putin on the anniversary.