The president of the United States, Joe Biden, assured this Monday that
he is "considering additional sanctions
" against Russia after the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in an Arctic prison.
"There are already sanctions, but we are considering additional sanctions, yes," the US president, who has held Russian President Vladimir Putin and his "thugs" directly responsible
for Navalni's death,
told the press .
Navalny died on Friday under unknown circumstances
at the age of 47 in a Russian Arctic prison, in an event that shocked the Russian opposition in exile.
Biden and other Western allies have already imposed unprecedented sanctions to curb Moscow's actions in the war with Ukraine, although they have failed to stop the conflict.
A woman leaves flowers at a memorial for Navalny in St. Petersburg.
AP Photo
However,
doubts about Washington's future commitment to Kiev have increased recently
.
With US funding already exhausted, former President Donald Trump's Republican allies in the House of Representatives have stalled $60 billion in new military aid.
Trump, the party's likely nominee in November's presidential election, opposes aid to Ukraine and recently used his influence to kill an immigration reform bill that also included additional assistance to kyiv.
Biden
attacked the Republicans again this Monday
for the failure to approve the aid package.
"The way they walk away from the threat of Russia, the way they walk away from NATO, the way they walk away from fulfilling our obligations, it's just shocking," he said.
However, he assured that he would be happy to meet with Republican leader Mike Johnson, speaker of the House of Representatives, who told reporters that he has no intention of even allowing a vote on the project.
"Of course I would love to meet with him, if he has anything to say
," Biden said.
He added that he hopes Navalny's death will make a difference when it comes to approving aid, but warned that he is "not sure."
The body, 14 more days
The Russian opposition's team of collaborators stated this Monday that investigators
will carry out an "expert" examination of his body for at least 14 days.
Russia reported Navalny's death on Friday and his mother has since
been denied the chance to see his body.
"The investigators told Alexei's lawyers and mother that they are not going to hand over the body and that in the next 14 days they will carry out chemical analysis, an examination," the opposition's spokesperson, Kira Yarmish, declared on YouTube on Monday.
"For at least two weeks, they will do some type of inspection
," he said.
"I am going to say it once again: Navalni's body is being hidden to hide the traces of the murder. This fourteen-day 'clinical analysis'
is a crude lie
and a mockery," said the spokesperson, in a statement posted online. x.
Navalni's mother, Liudmila, traveled on Saturday to the Arctic prison colony, where her son was imprisoned, but they have not allowed her access to the morgue where, according to what she was told, the opponent's body is located.
Previously this Monday, the Kremlin indicated that an investigation into Navalny's death is being carried out but that, for now,
it has not produced "results."
President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, pointed out that what happens with Navalny's body or the date on which it is delivered is not the responsibility of the Kremlin.
Source: AFP and AP
P.B.