UK sanctions officials at Russian penal colony where opposition figure Navalny died

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - The UK on Wednesday announced sanctions on six Russian officials at the remote Arctic penal colony where opposition figure Alexei Navalny died last week.

Individuals, sanctioned under the UK’s Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations, will be subject to asset freezes and travel bans, according to a statement by Britain's Foreign Office.

"It’s clear that the Russian authorities saw Navalny as a threat and they tried repeatedly to silence him," Foreign Secretary David Cameron said.

"That’s why we’re today sanctioning the most senior prison officials responsible for his custody in the penal colony where he spent his final months," Cameron said in the statement.

The blacklisted individuals are Col. Vadim Konstantinovich Kalinin, head of IK-3 Arctic Penal Colony "Polar Wolf," and five deputy heads – Lt. Col. Sergey Nikolaevich Korzhov, Lt. Col. Vasily Alexandrovich Vydrin, Lt. Col. Vladimir Ivanovich Pilipchik, Lt. Col. Aleksandr Vladimirovich Golyakov and Col. Aleksandr Valerievich Obraztsov.

He added: "Those responsible for Navalny’s brutal treatment should be under no illusion - we will hold them accountable."

Following Navalny’s death on Friday, the Foreign Office summoned a representative of the Russian government "to make clear that Alexei Navalny’s death must be investigated fully and transparently."

The Russian penitentiary service announced last Friday that the 47-year-old opposition figure died in a prison colony while serving a 19-year sentence for extremism.

Navalny was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Moscow after being treated for poisoning in a Berlin hospital. Western countries and Navalny himself blamed Russia for the poisoning, a claim the Kremlin denies.

In August 2021, he was sentenced to 19 years in prison for extremism and other crimes. He was already serving an 11-year and five-month sentence for fraud.