The Biden administration is preparing to impose sanctions on Russia following the poisoning and jailing of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny within the week, calling for his immediate release from prison. On August 20, 2020, Navalny was poisoned with the lethal nerve agent Novichok, which was planted in his underwear. Falling extremely ill on a flight to Moscow, the pilot diverted the plane to Omsk, where Navalny was transported to a secret location for life-saving treatment in Germany. If the flight had continued to Moscow, Navalny would have died. Returning home to Russia, Navalny was immediately imprisoned. However, before imprisonment, Navalny posed as an official in Russia’s National Security Council in order to find out the details of his poisoning from elite toxins teammember for Russia’s FSB security service, Konstantin Kudryavtsev, in which Kudryavtsev disclosed it was an inside job from the Russian government.
Working in conjunction with the European Union, the implementation of the sanctions are the first imposed on Russia by the Biden administration, which according to CNN, “Will set the tone for their policy towards Moscow going forward.” The Biden administration criticized the Trump admin, saying the U.S. will no longer be bystanders to the poisoning of Navalny and will no longer shy away from directly confronting Russia in order to send a, “strong message on human rights.”
The Biden administration is also planning on tackling a broader set of challenges brought on from Russia within the coming weeks. One option being discussed is an executive order, focused on Russia, which would place sanctions on the country for their multiple assaults on both American democracy and American people. These sanctions would be reparations for attacks such as the SolarWinds hack and the bounties put on US soldiers in Afghanistan, both which have been linked back to Russia.
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