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Britain has imposed sanctions on six senior prison officers at the remote Arctic prison colony where Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in unexplained circumstances last week.
The asset freeze and travel ban on the group announced by the Foreign Office on Wednesday is the first round of western sanctions in response to the activist’s death. The EU and US are expected to announce their own sanctions packages in the next few days.
“Those responsible for Navalny’s brutal treatment should be under no illusion — we will hold them accountable,” said David Cameron, UK foreign secretary.
He is expected to challenge his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov directly over Moscow’s military aggression when the pair attend the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Brazil later on Wednesday. Western leaders are highlighting their support for Ukraine ahead of the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Cameron’s intervention comes after Leo Docherty, a junior UK Foreign Office minister, this week described Navalny’s death as a “murder”.
Colonel Vadim Konstantinovich Kalinin, head of the IK-3 Arctic penal colony that is nicknamed Polar Wolf, is among the six individuals blacklisted by Britain. The other five officers are his deputies.
“Those in charge of the Arctic penal colony where Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny was detained and killed will be banned from the UK and see their assets frozen,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.
It added that the activist had been kept in solitary confinement for up to two weeks at a time, denied medical treatment and forced to walk outside in temperatures of about minus 32C during his detention in the “brutal” prison camp.
The UK is pressing the Russian authorities to release Navalny’s body to his family following reports they have been denied access.
Josep Borrell, the EU’s chief diplomat, said on Monday that while Russian President Vladimir Putin was “responsible for Navalny’s death”, Brussels would propose sanctions against members of “the institutional structure of the penitentiary system in Russia”.
The White House has confirmed the US, which is pressing for “complete transparency” over how Navalny died, will bring forward a “major” package of sanctions on Friday.
US President Joe Biden said last week: “Make no mistake: Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death.”
In 2021, the UK imposed sanctions on 13 individuals and one entity a year after Navalny’s poisoning with the nerve agent novichok.
In total, Britain has imposed measures on 29 of those on the original “Navalny list” of 35 individuals accused of links to his poisoning and imprisonment in 2020.
Cameron said on Wednesday that it was “clear that the Russian authorities saw Navalny as a threat and they tried repeatedly to silence him”.
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