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US to announce new sanctions on Russia related to death of Navalny
The US will announce a major package of sanctions on Friday aimed at Russia over the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, it was announced moments ago.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby made the statement on Tuesday, Reuters reports.
The package will:
Hold Russia accountable for what happened to Mr Navalny” and for its actions over the course of the war in Ukraine, Kirby said, without providing details on the sanctions measures.
It’s coming very close to two years since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022 and the US announcement will be made on the eve of that anniversary.
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Italy’s deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, once an outspoken admirer of Russian president Vladimir Putin, landed himself in hot water Tuesday with a comment on the death of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Agence France-Presse writes.
The head of the anti-immigrant League party, said it was “up to Russian doctors and judges” to determine the cause of Navalny’s death.
Asked about Salvini’s remark, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said EU member states had adopted a joint declaration attributing responsibility for Navalny’s death “to President Putin and the Russian authorities”.
It is a declaration approved by Italy,” Borrell said.
He advised that:
Members of governments to simply read what their governments approve and adopt.”
The League signed a co-operation deal with Putin’s ruling party in 2017, deepening their ties.
There is a little more detail on the announcement from the White House that the US will announce new Russia sanctions on Friday, in response to the death of Alexei Navalny.
The Agence France-Presse news agency reports:
At President Biden’s direction, we will be announcing a major sanctions package on Friday of this week to hold Russia accountable for what happened to Mr Navalny,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Tuesday.
Russia last Friday announced the death of Navalny, a persistent critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin, who survived a 2020 poisoning and died at a remote prison in the Arctic where the anti-corruption campaigner was serving a 19-year sentence.
Whatever story the Russian government decides to tell the world, it’s clear President Putin and his government are responsible.
Absent some credible investigation into his death, it’s hard to get to a point where we can just take the Russians’ word for it. We’re calling for complete transparency by the Russian government for how he died,” Kirby said.
He added that the sanctions on Russia were for:
All its actions over the course of this vicious and brutal war that has now raged on for two years.
US to announce new sanctions on Russia related to death of Navalny
The US will announce a major package of sanctions on Friday aimed at Russia over the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, it was announced moments ago.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby made the statement on Tuesday, Reuters reports.
The package will:
Hold Russia accountable for what happened to Mr Navalny” and for its actions over the course of the war in Ukraine, Kirby said, without providing details on the sanctions measures.
It’s coming very close to two years since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022 and the US announcement will be made on the eve of that anniversary.
Russia denies US claims that Moscow plans nuclear weapons in space
Russian president Vladimir Putin said that he was against the deployment of nuclear weapons in space and his defence minister flatly denied any plans for such a deployment.
The United States has told the US Congress and allies in Europe about new intelligence related to Russian nuclear capabilities that could pose an international threat, Reuters reports.
Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu said that US claims about Russian intentions were aimed at scaring US lawmakers into allocating more funds to spend on countering Russia.
Putin said Russia’s activities in space did not differ from those of other countries, including the US.
Last week, the Guardian reported, the White House confirmed that it is monitoring a new Russian anti-satellite weapon which it said is being developed but not yet deployed – calling it “troubling” but not an immediate threat to anyone’s safety.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said that Russian troops should develop their success on the battlefield in Ukraine after the fall of Avdiivka.
He said Ukrainian troops were forced to flee the devastated city in chaos, Reuters reports.
Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu said that the Russian offensive was continuing and troops were moving westwards.
Shoigu said Russian forces had taken control of the village of Krynky in the Kherson region.
The Guardian’s Angela Giuffrida adds in this report that Russia earlier said it has taken full control of the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka, its biggest gain since capturing Bakhmut last May.
Russian troops launched multiple attacks further west from Avdiivka in a bid for further battlefield gains, a Ukrainian army spokesperson said on Sunday.
Summary of the day so far...
Poland’s foreign ministry has summoned Russia’s ambassador, saying it “called on Russian authorities to take responsibility for the death of Alexei Navalny and conduct a full and transparent investigation to determine the circumstances and cause of his death.” On Monday, France, Finland, Germany, Lithuania, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands said they had summoned diplomats from Russian embassies.
Lyudmila Navalnaya, Alexei Navalny’s mother, has demanded that Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, hand over her son’s body. “Vladimir Putin … let me finally see my son,” Navalnaya said in a video message. The safety account for the social media platform X said that Yulia Navalnaya’s account was suspended earlier today after its “platform’s defence mechanism against manipulation and spam” mistakenly flagged it as being in violation of its rules.
Estonia’s prime minister, Kaja Kallas, said her country has broken up a hybrid operation by Russia’s security services. The Internal Security Services (ISS) and the prosecutor’s office said they had arrested 10 people they believed were acting for Russia in connection with attacks on ministers and a journalist’s cars.
Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmygal, has described Russia’s full-scale invasion of his country as an “existential war” during a visit to Tokyo. “So we can’t speak about fatigue, because it’s an existential war – you can’t be fatigued when you’re fighting for your future, for your life … for global security order,” he said.
A Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s Sumy region hit a residential building on Tuesday, killing five people, authorities said.
Protests from Polish farmers on Tuesday marked an escalation from previous demonstrations, with a near-total blockade of all Ukrainian border crossings and disruption at ports and on roads nationwide.
A Russian court has rejected a complaint by Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich about the extension of his pre-trial detention until 30 March on spying charges, which he denies, the court’s press service said.
Russia’s foreign intelligence chief said that a Russian pilot who defected to Ukraine and was found shot dead in Spain last week was a “moral corpse” when he planned his defection, Russian news agencies reported.
Russia’s FSB security services said it had arrested a US-Russian woman suspected of treason for raising funds for the Ukrainian army. The FSB in the central Urals city of Ekaterinburg said it had “suppressed the illegal activities” of a 33-year-old woman, a resident of Los Angeles with dual citizenship, and taken her into custody.
Sweden will donate military aid to Ukraine worth about 7.1 billion Swedish crowns (£541m), the country’s largest contribution to date, the country’s defence ministry said. It will be Sweden’s 15th round of aid for Ukraine, taking the overall aid since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 to about 30 billion crowns (£2.3bn).
Poland summons Russian ambassador
Poland’s foreign ministry has summoned Russia’s ambassador.
In a statement, Poland’s foreign ministry said it “called on Russian authorities to take responsibility for the death of Alexei Navalny and conduct a full and transparent investigation to determine the circumstances and cause of his death.”
“The authorities of the Russian Federation demonstrate a complete rejection of moral norms not only in the context of dealing with domestic civil society, but also in the ongoing war against Ukraine,” the Polish ministry said.
Also on Tuesday, Slovenia said it had summoned a Russian envoy to the ministry in Ljubljana, urging Moscow to release all political prisoners.
On Monday, France, Finland, Germany, Lithuania, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands said they had summoned diplomats from Russian embassies.
Many western countries have unanimously blamed the Russian authorities for the death of Navalny, the jailed Russian opposition leader who had been serving a 19-year prison sentence at a remote prison in the Arctic.
My colleagues Luke Harding and Lisa O’Carroll have more on the escalation of Poland’s bitter dispute with Ukraine over farm imports that has seen blockades taking place at several border crossings with Ukraine:
In the UK, a Home Office minister said he wants the visa process to be “light touch” and “easy as possible” for Ukrainians, despite the government’s announcement that it will close the Ukraine family scheme on Monday.
Tom Pursglove told the House of Commons that Ukrainians will continue to be offered sanctuary in the UK and any suggestion otherwise is “deliberate scaremongering,” PA Media reports.
MPs criticised the move by the Home Office, stating it is “particularly cruel” to announce the end of the scheme as the two-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion approaches.
The decision to close the Ukraine family scheme, which allowed applicants to join family members or extend their stay in the UK, was announced among a series of changes to immigration rules set out in a policy document.
The document also confirmed a visa extension scheme, which meant Ukrainian nationals and their immediate relatives could apply for permission to remain in the country, will close on 16 May.
X social network says Yulia Navalnaya's account was suspended because of technical error
The safety account for the social media platform X has said that Yulia Navalnaya’s account was suspended earlier today after its “platform’s defence mechanism against manipulation and spam” mistakenly flagged it as being in violation of its rules.
“We unsuspended the account as soon as we became aware of the error,” it said.
Our platform's defense mechanism against manipulation and spam mistakenly flagged @yulia_navalnaya as violating our rules. We unsuspended the account as soon as we became aware of the error, and will be updating the defense.
— Safety (@Safety) February 20, 2024X on Tuesday briefly blocked Navalnaya’s account, just one day after she created it after the death of her husband, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
The @Yulia-Navalnaya account page was accessible again, about 50 minutes after it was suspended without explanation.
Navalnaya, 47, has accused the Russian authorities of murdering her husband, hiding his body and waiting for traces of the nerve agent novichok to disappear from it.
Russian hybrid attack in Estonia foiled, prime minister says
Lisa O'Carroll
Estonia’s prime minister, Kaja Kallas, said her country has broken up a hybrid operation by Russia’s security services.
The Internal Security Services (ISS) and the prosecutor’s office said they had arrested 10 people they believed were acting for Russia in connection with attacks on ministers and a journalist’s cars.
“We know the Kremlin is targeting all of our democratic societies,” Kallas said in a post on social media X.
Estonia has successfully stopped a hybrid operation by Russia's security services on our territory.
We know the Kremlin is targeting all of our democratic societies.
Our answer: be open and reveal their methods. This is the way to deter harmful actions and make us resilient.
The ISS director general Margo Pollson said the aim of the hybrid operation was to sow fear and tension and undermine civil society.
“There was a plan to attack specific individuals’ vehicles yet, which we foiled. This is a new method of influence. In our assessment, Russia did not achieve its objective,” she said.
Some of those detained were recruited in Russia, others were recruited through social media with a fee that “was not significant and certainly not worth the risk”.
The foreign ministry will summon Russia’s top diplomat in Estonia.
“It is a clear example of Russia trying to weaken and undermine the unity of the west. Estonia takes the situation very seriously and we are doing our utmost to stop any action against our state,” Estonia’s foreign minister, Margus Tsahkna, said on Tuesday.
Last week, Moscow put Kallas, who has been leading efforts to increase military assistance to Kyiv and tighten sanctions against Russia, and other Baltic states officials on a wanted list.
Russia said the Estonian state secretary, Taimar Peterkop, the Lithuanian culture minister, Simonas Kairys, and Kallas were accused of “destroying monuments to Soviet soldiers”.
Another jailed member of Russia’s opposition has said that he fears for his life after the death of Alexei Navalny.
In a letter from prison, opposition member Ilya Yashin wrote that he had only learned of Navalny’s death on Monday.
“It’s hard to convey my shock,” wrote Yashin, who had known Navalny for more than a decade. “It’s hard to collect my thoughts. The pain and horror are unbearable.”
Yashin was sentenced to prison for eight years for publishing reports about the Russian military’s commission of war crimes in Bucha in 2022. He told the Guardian in letters from prison that he believed that Vladimir Putin had gone “mad from power”.
On Tuesday, he compared Navalny’s death with that of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was gunned down near the Kremlin walls.
“Now both my friends are dead,” he said. “I feel a black emptiness inside. And, of course, I understand my own risks. I am behind bars, my life is in Putin’s hands, and it is in danger. But I will continue to push my line.”
He said he was sure that Putin had ordered the murder of Navalny behind bars.
Read the full story here
X restores access to Yulia Navalnaya's account
X has restored access to Yulia Navalnaya’s account. There still appears no explanation for the temporary suspension. The top post on her account is the video of Alexei Navalny’s mother demanding the return of her son’s body.
