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US preparing more anti-Russian sanctions over Navalny — national security adviser

According to Jake Sullivan, the sanctions will come as soon as the US can "ensure that we are getting the right targets

NEW YORK CITY, June 20. /TASS/. Washington is preparing another package of sanctions over the situation around Russian blogger Alexei Navalny, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday.

"We are preparing another package of sanctions to apply in this case," he told CNN. "We've shown all along the way that we are not going to pull our punches, whether it's on solar winds, or election interference, or Navalny when it comes to responding to Russia's harmful activities."

According to Sullivan, the sanctions will come as soon as the US can "ensure that we are getting the right targets. "When we do that, we will impose further sanctions," he added

Navalny was rushed to a local hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk on August 20 after collapsing on a Moscow-bound flight from Tomsk. He fell into a coma and was put on a ventilator in an intensive care unit. On August 22, he was airlifted to Berlin and admitted to the Charite hospital.

On September 2, Berlin claimed that having examined Navalny’s test samples, German government toxicologists had come to the conclusion that the blogger had been affected by a toxic agent belonging to the Novichok family.

The Russian side has repeatedly said that it is ready for comprehensive cooperation with Germany and stressed that that no poisonous substances had been detected in Navalny’s system prior to his transfer to Berlin. It has also been demonstrating readiness for cooperation to probe into the incident and has issued several official inquiries on that matter.

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, where he had undergone medical treatment. 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.