By Matt Korade and Rebecca Shabad -
NBC News
President Joe Biden on Friday announced more than 500 new sanctions on Russia over its war in Ukraine and the death in prison last week of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Biden said the sanctions target individuals connected to Navalny's imprisonment, Russia's financial sector, defense industrial base, procurement networks and fine evaders on multiple continents.
[Biden calls Putin a “crazy son of a bitch” and Russia responds that it is a “shame” that he speaks like “a Hollywood cowboy”]
“(The sanctions) will ensure that Putin pays an even higher price for his aggression abroad and his repression at home,” Biden said in a statement.
And he noted that the measures coincide with the second anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Biden meets with Yulia Navalnaya (right), widow of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and her daughter, Dasha Navalnaya, in San Francisco on February 22, 2024. White House via AFP - Getty Images
The United States will also impose export restrictions on nearly 100 entities that support Russia's military operations and take steps to reduce that nation's energy revenues, the president added.
“I have instructed my team to strengthen support for civil society, independent media and those fighting for democracy around the world,” he added.
A new call to Congress
Biden stressed the need for Congress to pass the Senate's foreign aid package, stating that Ukraine “is running out of ammunition.”
The country needs more supplies from the United States to “maintain strength against Russia's relentless attacks,” which are facilitated by all the weaponry coming from Iran and North Korea, the president said.
“That's why the House of Representatives must pass the bipartisan supplemental national security bill before it's too late,” Biden said.
The sanctions package, which the president unveiled on Tuesday, was announced exactly a week after the Russian prison service reported that Navalny, 47, had died in a Russian penal colony in the Arctic Circle.
The opponent was serving a combined sentence of more than 30 years in prison on charges of extremism and fraud, which he denied.
Biden met with Navalny's wife, Yulia Navalnaya, and their daughter, Dasha, in California on Thursday.
For her part, Navalny's mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, stated in a video on Thursday that she had been allowed access to her son's body in a morgue, but that her lawyer had not been able to accompany her.
She alleged that Russian authorities were “blackmailing” her with the threat that if she did not agree to a secret funeral, “they would do something with the body.”