On Tuesday, March 2, the United States and the European Union imposed sanctions to punish Russia for what it described as Moscow’s attempted poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny with a nerve agent.
As was reported by Reuters, among those designated by the U.S. Treasury Department were Alexander Bortnikov, director of the FSB; Andrei Yarin, chief of the Kremlin’s domestic policy directorate; and deputy ministers of defense Alexei Krivoruchko and Pavel Popov, 3 other individuals involved in the poisoning and 14 entities.
As a result, their assets under U.S. jurisdiction are frozen, and U.S. persons are generally barred from dealing with them. In addition, any foreigner who knowingly “facilitates a significant transaction” for them risks being sanctioned. It was unclear whether the seven had U.S. assets, making it hard to judge whether the sanctions were more than symbolic.
The United States acted in concert with the European Union, which imposed largely symbolic sanctions on four senior Russian officials close to Putin, a move agreed by EU ministers last week in response to Navalny’s jailing.
The EU sanctions apply to Alexander Bastrykin, whose Investigative Committee handles major criminal probes and reports to Putin; Viktor Zolotov, head of Russia’s National Guard; as well as to Krasnov and Kalashnikov.
The EU sanctions fall short of calls by Navalny’s supporters to punish wealthy businessmen around Putin who travel to the EU.
Unlike Western sanctions imposed on Russia’s economy in 2014 in response to its annexation of Crimea, travel bans and asset freezes have less impact, experts say, because state officials do not have funds in EU banks or travel to the EU.