WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd March, 2021) The United States will add Russia to a list of nations subject to denial for exports of defense articles and services, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Tuesday.
"The (State) Department will amend Section 126.1 of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations to include Russia in the list of countries subject to a policy of denial for exports of defense articles and defense services, with certain exceptions for exports to Russia in support of government space cooperation," Blinken said in a statement.
Blinken pointed out in the statement that the United States has excluded some space cooperation with Russia from newly imposed sanctions.
"Exports in support of commercial space cooperation, however, will be restricted following a six-month transition period," he said.
The State Department has also expanded existing sanctions against Russia under the US Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991 that were imposed following the alleged Skripal poisoning in the United Kingdom, Blinken said.
"The Department of State has also implemented measures under Executive Order (E.O.) 13382, which targets weapons of mass destruction proliferators, as well as the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) against multiple Russian individuals and entities associated with the Russian Federation's chemical weapons program and defense and intelligence sectors," he said.
Blinken noted that the Treasury Department has targeted seven Russian government officials, five of whom were previously designated by the European Union and the United Kingdom over Navalny's poisoning and two whom the bloc sanctioned in response to Navalny's arrest and imprisonment.
"The Department of Commerce is adding 14 entities to the Entity List based on their proliferation activities in support of Russia's weapons of mass destruction programs and chemical weapons activities," Blinken said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in December that a preliminary investigation was opened in the Navalny case, but an actual investigation could not be launched amid the lack of substantiating materials while the Western countries ignored Russia's requests for aid on the case.
In January, Navalny returned to Russia from Germany, where he was treated for the alleged poisoning, and was arrested upon arrival at Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport. Shortly after, a Moscow court rescinded Navalny's suspended sentence in the 2014 Yves Rocher fraud case over multiple probation breaches and replaced it with a three-and-a-half-year prison term.
