“We will be announcing a comprehensive sanctions package,” said John Kirby.
February 20, 2024, 12:51 PM ET
• 4 min reading
The White House will announce a new “major sanctions package” on Friday “to hold Russia accountable for the death of Alexei Navalny, the long-time Russian opposition politician and critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin,” said John Kirby, national security communications adviser .
“Whatever story the Russian government wants to tell the world, it is clear that President Putin and his government are responsible for Mr. Navalny’s death,” Kirby said Tuesday morning. “In response, and at the direction of President Biden, we will announce a comprehensive sanctions package on Friday this week to hold Russia accountable for what happened to Mr. Navalny.”
Kirby did not elaborate on the contents of the new sanctions package, but noted that the sanctions would also serve to hold Russia accountable for its ongoing war with Ukraine.
White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby speaks at a news conference at the White House on February 15, 2024 in Washington. Andrew Harnik/AP
“I think what you will see in this package that we will announce on Friday is a series of sanctions – a regime aimed not only at holding Mr. Putin to account for the now two-year war in Ukraine, but also expressly supplemented by additional sanctions related to the death of Mr. Navalny,” Kirby said.
Last week, Navalny died in prison at the age of 47. Shortly after news of Navalny's death, President Joe Biden placed the blame squarely on Putin.
“We don’t know exactly what happened, but there is no doubt that Navalny’s death was the result of something that Putin and his friends did,” Biden said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week: “Russia is responsible.”
A vigil for Russian activist Alexey Navalny in Munich, February 16, 2024. Alex Kraus/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny's widow, called on Tuesday for the remains to be returned so they could be “buried with dignity.”
She released a video claiming that Navalny's body was being withheld from the family because he was murdered, possibly by poison.
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said on Tuesday that these accusations were “unfounded, unsupported and boring.”
Russia is already heavily sanctioned: the sanctions signed by Biden in December targeted financial institutions, indirectly allowing Russia to further expand its war arsenal amid its aggression against Ukraine.
ABC News' Kevin Shalvey and Sarah Beth Hensley contributed to this report.