It was a series of measures that the new government announced on Tuesday in its first significant move against Moscow. Senior government officials emphasized that this is being done in coordination with allies such as the European Union, which also unveiled sanctions on Tuesday.
Senior government officials told reporters on a call on Tuesday that the Treasury Department is sanctioning seven senior members of the Russian government. The State Department is mirroring previous EU and UK sanctions and extending sanctions under the Chemical and Biological Weapons Act, which was first imposed by the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal, an official said. The Commerce Department will add 14 parties to the list of entities for its involvement “in activities that are contrary to US national security and foreign policy interests,” said another official.
“Specifically, these parties are all involved in various aspects of the production of biological agents and the production of chemicals,” they said.
Government officials did not identify the targets of these sanctions in the summons.
One senior government official referred to Navalny’s poisoning in August 2020 as an assassination attempt and another noted that the intelligence community assessed with great confidence that Russia’s security service, the FSB, poisoned the opposition leader with the Novichok nervous agent.
Senior government officials made it clear in a call with reporters on Tuesday that their approach to Russia would be a break with that of former President Donald Trump, who was criticized for being too lenient with Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The tone and content of our conversations with Russia and our conversations about Russia will be very different from what you saw in the previous government,” said one of the officials.
This story is emerging and will be updated.