The U.S. State Department observed the second anniversary of the poisoning of opposition leader Aleksy Navalny by the Russian government.
Navalny survived the attempted assassination with a nerve agent on Russian soil, only to be imprisoned on politically motivated charges after he returned from recovering abroad, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in an Aug. 20 news release.
“We again condemn Russia’s use of a chemical weapon to poison a political opponent and call on the Kremlin to fully declare and dismantle its chemical weapons program,” Price said in the release.
The Kremlin escalated its crackdown on dissent and independent media since its invasion of Ukraine, he said. Broad censorship laws that carry harsh prison sentences are being imposed, the release reported. He said it was not a coincidence that repression intensified along with Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.
He said the U.S. reaffirmed its solidarity with political prisoners in Russia including Navalny, Vladimir Kara-Murza and thousands of other courageous Russian citizens who confront the Kremlin’s lies despite personal risk, according to the release.
The Kremlin wants to keep the Russian people from knowing about the atrocities its military has inflicted on Ukrainian civilians and its own casualties, Price said in the release.
