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.

The European Union also announced today that it is imposing sanctions on several foreign companies over allegations that they have exported dual-use goods to Russia that could be used in the war. 

The 27-nation bloc said that it was targeting scores of Russian officials, including “members of the judiciary, local politicians and people responsible for the illegal deportation and military re-education of Ukrainian children.”

US President Joe Biden said: “If Putin does not pay the price for his death and destruction, he will keep going. And the costs to the United States, along with our Nato allies and partners in Europe and around the world, will rise.”

Twenty-six third-country people and firms from across China, Serbia, the United Arab Emirates, and Liechtenstein are listed for sanctions for assisting Russia in evading existing financial penalties.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the EU sanctions are "illegal" and undermine “the international legal prerogatives of the UN security council.”

In response, the ministry is banning some EU citizens from entering the country because they have provided military assistance to Ukraine. 

Meanwhile the war is continuing with no peace deal in sight. 

On Thursday the Russian ambassador to Britain Andrei Kelin confirmed that former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had thwarted a deal in March 2022 on the instructions of the US. 

He told Turkish broadcaster TRT World that Mr Johnson “blocked the peace efforts with Washington’s blessing.”

He added that the deal “had already been initialled by the head of the Ukrainian delegation, David Arakhamia, but it was thrown into the wastebasket, and Ukraine started fighting.” The remarks echo previously published accounts of the incident from Turkish and Israeli leaders.