THE US and EU announced new sanctions on Russia today, on the eve of the second anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine and in retaliation for the death of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny last week in an Arctic penal colony.

The US Treasury, State Department and Commerce Department said they plan to impose roughly 600 new sanctions on Russia in the largest single tranche of penalties since the invasion on February 24 2022. 

They come on the heels of a series of new arrests and indictments announced by the Justice Department on Thursday that target Russian businessmen, including the head of Russia’s second-largest bank, and their middlemen in five separate federal cases.