U.S. President Joe Biden met on Thursday with the wife and daughter of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died last week, “to express his heartfelt condolences,” the White House said.
The White House said in a statement that at the meeting in California, Biden expressed his admiration for Navalny’s “extraordinary courage and legacy of his fight against corruption and a free and democratic Russia where the rule of law applies equally to all.”
Biden also confirmed that the United States will announce major new sanctions on Russia on Friday in response to Navalny’s death, Russia’s repression and aggression, and the war in Ukraine.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan has previously said the latest punitive measures would target a range of projects, including the country’s defense and industrial base as well as economic revenue sources.
Navalny, 47, died suddenly on Friday after falling into coma after a walk at the “Polar Wolf” penal colony above the Arctic Circle, the prison service said. He is serving a three-year sentence at the prison.