Opinion | With Biden’s America, China and Russia can expect more clashes over human rights

Name: US and EU sanction seven Russian officials over Alexei Navalny poisoning
Uploaded: 2021-03-09T17:00:16.000Z
Duration: 3 min 1 s
Description: US and EU sanction seven Russian officials over Alexei Navalny poisoning

Washington’s Russia sanctions and criticism of China’s handling of Xinjiang and Hong Kong signal a hardline stance that will be seen by both as interference

For their part, Beijing and Moscow would not wish to escalate tensions with Washington

Reading Time:4 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

Danil Bochkov

Published: 1:00am, 10 Mar 2021Updated: 1:33am, 10 Mar 2021

The US and the EU unveiled coordinated sanctions on Russia and its top brass on March 2 for the poisoning and jailing of Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny, with the US sanctions targeting seven Russian officials and 14 entities involved in the chemical and biological industrial base in Russia.

Hailed as “a demonstration of transatlantic unity”, these are new US administration’s first sanctions against Russia. President Joe Biden also extended the Crimea-related sanctions imposed during the Obama administration in 2014. Now Washington is warning of more sanctions it could coordinate with Brussels to target Russia’s sovereign debt.

With these actions against Russia, the United States is just catching up with the European Union, which imposed sanctions on Russian officials in October last year for the poisoning of Navalny. Biden’s decision to reach out to Brussels to make a collective move also signals his desire to distinguish his approach from that of his unilateralist predecessor Donald Trump.

On its part, the EU said its latest sanctions were for the Navalny case, as well as the “repression of peaceful protests in connection with his unlawful treatment”. These penalties mark the first time the EU is using the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime (the European version of the US Magnitsky Act), which was adopted in December last year.

Its policy dovetails with Biden’s ambition to unite like-minded democracies against “those who argue that … autocracy is the best way forward” – in other words, against Russia and China.

03:01

US and EU sanction seven Russian officials over Alexei Navalny poisoning

China – recently described by the Biden administration as the biggest geopolitical challenge – expressed indirect support for Russia on March 3 when its foreign ministry spokesman said: “The handling of the issue concerning Mr Navalny is entirely Russia’s domestic affair. External forces have no right to interfere in a sovereign nation’s internal affairs.”

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x