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The US has sanctioned more than 500 Russian targets in response to the death of opposition activist Alexei Navalny and on the eve of the two-year anniversary of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The measures, announced by US President Joe Biden on Friday, are aimed at punishing human rights violators and slowing Vladimir Putin’s war machine.
Biden said the package, which is the largest issued since the war began, “will ensure Putin pays an even steeper price for his aggression abroad and repression at home”.
He said the measures would target “individuals connected to Navalny’s imprisonment”, as well as Russia’s financial sector, defence industry and procurement networks.
The sanctions would also target nearly 100 entities “for providing backdoor support for Russia’s war machine”.
The move comes a week after Navalny, Putin’s most outspoken domestic critic, died in an Arctic penal colony. Western leaders were quick to suggest the Russian government was to blame for his death.
“Make no mistake: Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death,” Biden said.
On Wednesday the UK also moved to punish Russia for Navalny’s death, imposing an asset freeze and travel ban on six senior prison offers at the penal colony where the activist died.
On the same day the EU announced sanctions on several foreign companies including from India and China that are accused of aiding Russia’s war effort.