MOSCOW (dpa-AFX) - The United States has imposed sanctions on four operatives of a Russian intelligence agency for their involvement in the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Aleksey Navalny three years ago.
The Department of the Treasury said it designated Alexey Alexandrovich Alexandrov, Konstantin Kudryavtsev, Ivan Vladimirovich Osipov, and Vladimir Alexandrovich Panyaev, pursuant to the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012.
Separately, the Department of State announced visa restrictions against the four Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) operatives.
'The assassination attempt against Aleksey Navalny in 2020 represents the Kremlin's contempt for human rights, and we will continue to use the authorities at our disposal to hold the Kremlin's willing would-be executioners to account,' said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson.
On August 20, 2020, during a flight back to Moscow after campaigning in Tomsk and Novosibirsk, Navalny fell gravely ill, prompting an emergency landing in Omsk where he was treated by local hospital staff. The U.S. government assesses that Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officers used the nerve agent Novichok to poison Navalny.
Russian authorities imprisoned Navalny upon his return to Russia in January 2021, and on August 4, 2023, a Russian court sentenced Navalny to an additional 19 years in prison on unfounded charges of so-called 'extremism.'
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