US senators propose sanctions against Russian officials

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has proposed sanctions against Russian officials over the situation with Alexei Navalny, according to the statement on the website of Democratic Senator Chris Coons.

"U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) introduced the bipartisan Holding Russia Accountable for Malign Activities Act of 2020, a targeted bill that would impose sanctions on Russian officials complicit in brazen violations of international law including the recent poisoning of opposition leader and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny. The bill directs the administration to determine if the Kremlin has violated U.S. laws prohibiting the use of chemical and biological weapons," the letter said.

"As Russia continues to meddle in our elections and take other malign actions in countries like Belarus, Ukraine, and Syria that makes the world more dangerous, this bipartisan bill seeks to hold Putin and his inner circle accountable," Senator Coons said of the draft legislation.
Russian blogger and opposition figure Alexei Navalny was hospitalized in Omsk on August 20, after his health deteriorated rapidly during his flight from Tomsk to Moscow. Upon hospitalization, Navalny was in a coma and then hooked up to a ventilator. On August 22, he was transferred to the Charite clinic in Berlin.

On September 2, the German government claimed that Navalny's tests revealed traces of an unidentified poisonous substance from the notorious Novichok group.