On Thursday, the U.S. Treasury Department issued a new sheaf of sanctions against officials in Vladimir Putin’s government over the poisoning of Russian opposition politician Alexei (Aleksey) Navalny, whom the government has imprisoned for his outspoken criticism:
WASHINGTON — Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is once again taking action to hold the Government of Russia accountable for its poisoning of Russian opposition politician Aleksey Navalny (Navalny) three years ago on August 20, 2020. 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.” The State Department is also announcing related visa restrictions on the individuals designated today.
It continued:
Today, OFAC sanctioned Alexey Alexandrovich Alexandrov (Alexandrov), Konstantin Kudryavtsev (Kudryavtsev), Ivan Vladimirovich Osipov (Osipov), and Vladimir Alexandrovich Panyaev (Panyaev), all of whom were involved in the poisoning of Navalny. Alexandrov, Kudryavtsev, Osipov, and Panyaev were designated pursuant to the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012 for having acted as agents of or on behalf of a person in a matter relating to extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights committed against individuals seeking to expose illegal activity carried out by officials of the Government of the Russian Federation.
The majority of individuals implicated in Navalny’s poisoning have been reported to have worked within or collaborated with the FSB Criminalistics Institute, an FSB sub-unit originally founded under the Soviet-era Committee for State Security (the KGB) as a specialized laboratory. The FSB Criminalistics Institute was designated on August 20, 2021 pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13382 for acting for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the FSB.
Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian E. Nelson said:
Today we remind Vladimir Putin and his regime that there are consequences not only for waging a brutal and unprovoked war against Ukraine, but also for violating the human rights of the Russian people.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.
Here are more details on the actions our State Department took Thursday:
Today’s designations are complemented by the Department of State’s announcement of visa restrictions against Alexandrov, Kudryavtsev, Osipov, and Panyaev under Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act for their involvement in a gross violation of human rights. Pursuant to 7031(c), Alexandrov, Kudryavtsev, Osipov, Panyaev, and their immediate family members are ineligible for entry into the United States.
RedState previously reported earlier in August on the failure of the U.S. State Department to impose any penalty on Russia for tacking on an additional 19 years of jail time for Navalny. With the moves by State that Treasury mentioned in Thursday’s statement, along with their own sanctions, maybe that’s beginning to change. We’ll keep you posted.
