Navalny poisoning: US slaps sanctions on Russia

The United States yesterday imposed sanctions on seven senior Russian officials as it said its intelligence concluded that Moscow orchestrated the near fatal poisoning of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. In action coordinated with the European Union, President Joe Biden's administration renewed demands that Russia free Navalny, who has been sent to a notorious penal colony after spurring massive rallies through his allegations of corruption by President Vladimir Putin. The announcement comes one day after EU member states approved sanctions on a partly overlapping list of four senior Russian justice and law enforcement officials involved in his detention. The targeted Russians will be restricted from traveling either to the European Union or the United States, with any assets in the Western nations frozen.