The United States has taken action against four Russian individuals it accuses of being involved in the 2020 poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The US Treasury Department announced sanctions on Thursday, stating that the four individuals are connected to Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), with two of them believed to be among the main perpetrators of the poisoning.

These sanctions serve as a reminder to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his regime that there are consequences not only for their actions in Ukraine but also for violating the human rights of the Russian people.

The Treasury's Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian Nelson, emphasized the Kremlin's contempt for human rights in the assassination attempt against Navalny and vowed to hold those responsible accountable. The sanctions were imposed under a 2012 act that allows the US government to target individuals involved in gross human rights violations in Russia by freezing their assets and prohibiting them from entering the United States.

The individuals targeted by the sanctions include Alexey Alexandrovich Alexandrov, Konstantin Kudryavtsev, Ivan Vladimirovich Osipov, and Vladimir Alexandrovich Panyaev, who are operatives of the FSB Criminalistics Institute.

The Russian embassy in Washington has not yet issued a response to the sanctions. Navalny, a prominent critic of Putin, is currently serving multiple prison sentences totaling 11 and a half years on fraudulent charges that he claims are politically motivated. His political movement has been banned and labeled as extremist. Navalny gained prominence by exposing corruption within Putin's regime and organizing protests that attracted tens of thousands of participants.

In 2021, he was detained upon his return to Moscow from Germany, where he had received treatment for poisoning allegedly carried out by the Russian government using a Soviet-era nerve agent. The Kremlin has consistently denied any involvement in the poisoning and has accused Navalny of working with foreign intelligence agencies to undermine Russia.

It has also portrayed him as a disruptor rather than a serious political competitor. The US sanctions serve as a strong message that actions violating human rights will not be tolerated, and efforts will continue to bring those responsible to justice.