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Citing Kremlin's 'Contempt For Human Rights,' U.S. Sanctions Four Russians Linked To FSB In Navalny Poisoning

(Article text Copyright © 2023 RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036. – rferl.org – Aug. 17, 2023 – article text also appeared at rferl.org/a/navalny-poisoning-us-sanctions-russians-fsb/32552684.html)

The United States has imposed sanctions on four Russians who it says were involved in the 2020 poisoning of Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny.

The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement on August 17 that the four men are linked to Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB).

“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,” said Brian Nelson, undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the Treasury Department.

“The assassination attempt against Aleksei 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.”

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said the four men designated for sanctions are Aleksei Alexandrov, Konstantin Kudryavtsev, Ivan Osipov, and Vladimir Panyayev, saying all were involved in the poisoning of Navalny.

They were designated under the Magnitsky Law, which sets out sanctions for human rights violators in Russia.

The sanctions come three days ahead of the three-year anniversary of the day that Navalny fell violently ill while on a flight from Siberia to Moscow. After receiving emergency care in Omsk on August 20, 2020, he was medically evacuated to Germany, where he was treated for what Western doctors said was poisoning by a Soviet-era nerve agent.

The operation against Navalny reportedly involved multiple individuals who were on the ground in both Tomsk and Omsk, as well as operatives coordinating the situation from afar, the Treasury Department's statement said.

Those involved collaborated to surveil Navalny ahead of the attack and then broke into his hotel room and applied "the chemical weapon to his personal belongings." They then attempted to erase any evidence of their operation, the Treasury said.

Navalny was detained in January 2021 after returning to Moscow from Germany. The Kremlin denied any involvement in what happened to him.

Navalny, who investigated corruption in the highest echelons of the Russian government, was convicted earlier this month on extremism charges and sentenced to 19 years. Navalny was already serving a combined 11 1/2-year prison sentence on previous convictions. The judge ruled that the sentences will be served concurrently, meaning his prison term would end in 2040.

Navalny and his supporters have called all charges levied against him politically motivated.

The sanctions imposed against the four Russians on August 17 freeze all property and interests in property that they have in U.S. jurisdiction. The OFAC’s regulations also generally prohibit all dealings by U.S.-based persons that involve any property or interests in property of designated entities.

With reporting by Reuters

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Key Words: Russia, Navalny, Human Rights, Russian Prisons, Russian Politics, Russian Oppression, Russian Opposition