NEW YORK CITY, April 18. /TASS/. US national security adviser Jake Sullivan has warned Russia of possible consequences in case Russian blogger Alexey Navalny dies in custody.
"We have communicated to the Russian government that what happens to Mr. Navalny in their custody is their responsibility and they will be held accountable by the international community," he said in an interview with CNN on Sunday. "In terms of the specific measures that we would take, we are looking at a variety of different costs that we would impose and I'm not going to telegraph that publicly at this point. But we have communicated that there will be consequences if Mr. Navalny dies."
According to Sullivan, Washington has arrived at a conclusion that this matter should better be discussed directly with Moscow, via diplomatic channels.
The Russian foreign ministry said earlier that ultimatum demands to Russia voiced by a number of countries and a media campaign around Navalny were geared solely towards destabilization of the political situation in Russia.
Navalny, who received suspended sentences for embezzlement twice, was wanted in Russia for repeated violations of conditions of his conviction in the Yves Rocher case. On January 17, 2021 he was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport upon arrival from Berlin. On February 2, Moscow’s Simonovsky Court replaced Navalny’s three-and-a-half-year suspended sentence with real jail time due to multiple probation violations. Navalny is serving his sentence in penal colony number 2 in the Vladimir region.
On April 5, the blogger was taken to the colony’s medial unit with symptoms of an acute respiratory disease. According to the Federal Penitentiary Service’s Vladimir region department, Navalny was brought back to the prison cell on April 9 after he had felt better. According to the agency, neither tuberculosis no coronavirus infection was confirmed. Doctors said his health conditions was satisfactory.