GOP lawmakers urge Biden to add sanctions on Russia over Navalny poisoning

The top Republican lawmakers with oversight of foreign affairs are raising concerns that President Biden is pulling his punches on Russian President Vladimir Putin following their summit in Geneva on Wednesday.

Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho) and Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the ranking members of their respective Foreign Affairs committees, wrote a letter to Biden on Wednesday urging the president to impose secondary sanctions on Russia over the August poisoning of top Putin critic Alexey Navalny.  

The letter was sent as the president was meeting with Putin in Switzerland. In a press conference following the talks, Biden said he raised the issue of Navalny — who remains in a Russian prison on charges criticized as politically motivated and is reportedly in poor health — and said there would be “devastating” consequences if he dies.

The lawmakers argued that the secondary sanctions are mandated by federal law, building on sanctions imposed by the administration in March over Russia’s use of chemical weapons and required if the secretary of State is unable to verify that Moscow is no longer using chemical weapons in violation of international law.  

“We are concerned that the delay of the imposition of these mandatory sanctions appears to be part of a larger pattern to avoid confronting the Putin regime ahead of the U.S.-Russia summit on June 16, 2021 in Geneva, Switzerland,” the lawmakers wrote.

They criticized the administration as providing an “unreciprocated concession that projects weakness” as well as holding back on issuing additional sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline between Russia and Germany.

They called Biden’s response to Russia’s role in a series of cyberattacks on the U.S. “muted.” 

“Forgoing this second round of U.S. sanctions, especially directly before your meeting with the Russian president, signals an unwillingness to stand up for the rule of law and democratic values and to truly hold the Putin regime accountable for its continued efforts to undermine them,” they wrote. 

The Biden administration has imposed a raft of sanctions targeting Russia’s activities, including sanctions related to the massive SolarWinds hack, election interference and entities involved in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.  

In March, the U.S. joined with member countries of the Group of Seven (G-7) nations to impose sanctions over Navalny’s poisoning and imprisonment.

The U.S. intelligence community assessed with “high confidence” that officers of Russia’s internal security service, the FSB, carried out the attack against Navalny with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok.  

Navalny was flown to Germany unconscious after succumbing to the poisoning attack on a Russian domestic flight on August 20. He returned to Russia in January after months of treatment and recuperation and was promptly arrested for what Russian security said was violation of his parole terms that prohibited leaving the country.  

Biden on Wednesday said he raised the issue of Navalny with Putin, saying he told the Russian leader that “human rights is going to always be on the table.” 

The president’s highly anticipated meeting with Putin came after a weeklong trip in Europe where Biden sought to shore up alliances among G-7 member countries, the European Union and NATO as a bulwark against Putin’s ambitions on the world stage.

A joint statement following Biden and Putin’s meeting said that the two sides made “progress on our shared goals of ensuring predictability in the strategic sphere, reducing the risk of armed conflicts and the threat of nuclear war.”