President Joe Biden Imposes Sanctions Regarding Alexei Navalny Case, Moscow Vows To Strike Back

Alexei Navalny. (Wikimedia Commons / Michał Siergiejevicz)

JAKARTA - The Russian Foreign Ministry said the sanctions imposed by the United States on their officials regarding the attempted assassination of Alexei Navalny was proof of an anti-Russian attack.

In addition, Russia will also retaliate against what has been described as another blow to relations between the United States and Russia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow would respond in kind to the new United States sanctions. Meanwhile, Russia's envoy to the European Union also promised a response to EU sanctions against four senior Russian officials.

"All of this is just an excuse to continue interfering in our domestic affairs", Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement to Reuters.

Zakharova said the United States was free to choose whether they wanted equal dialogue with Russia on reasonable grounds but said Moscow would not pay attention to any sanctions.

“Regardless of America's 'addiction to sanctions', we will continue to consistently and firmly defend our national interests, repelling any aggression. We urge our colleagues not to play with fire", said Zakharova.

"We have no intention of accepting this. We will respond based on the principle of reciprocity, but not necessarily symmetrically", she added.

The reaction of the Kremlin is inseparable from the sanctions imposed by President Joe Biden on imposing sanctions on 7 senior Russian officials and 14 entities in connection with an attempt to assassinate opposition politician Alexei Navalny with a nerve agent last year.

Russian officials sanctioned by the United States are Director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov, Deputy Minister of Defense Alexei Krivorucho and Pavel Popov, Head of the Kremlin Domestic Policy Directorate Andrei Yarin, First Deputy Chief of Staff to the President of Russia Sergei Kiriyenko, Director of the Federal Prison Service Russia Alexander Kalashnikov and Russian Attorney General Igor Krasnov.

"The United States intelligence community judges with high confidence that Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officers used neurons to poison opposition leader Alexei Navalny", said White House spokesman Jen Psaki as reported by ChannelNewsAsia.