The high Kremlin officials and the research centers of the Ministry of Defense are on the US sanctions list. They are similar to the ones which the administration of former US President Donald Trump had imposed few times.

The United States has published a sanctions list in the case of Alexei Navalny. New American sanctions hit: head of the Federal Penitentiary Service Mr. Alexander Kalashnikov, head of the presidential administration's internal policy department Mr. Andrei Yarin, Russian prosecutor general Mr. Igor Krasnov, director of the FSB Mr. Alexander Bortnikov, deputy defense ministers Mr. Alexei Krivoruchko and Mr. Pavel Popov, first deputy head of the presidential administration Mr. Sergei Kiriyenko.

The property of these persons located on the territory or under the jurisdiction of the United States will be blocked, American citizens, as well as citizens of other countries, under the threat of sanctions, will be prohibited from entering into business relations with them.

The US sanctioned also the 33rd Central Research Institute of the Ministry of Defense, the 27th Scientific Center of the Ministry of Defense, the Russian State Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology. All of the institutions named in the investigations of Navalny's poisoning with chemical weapon of mass destruction.

The information about the EU sanctions was published in the official journal of the organisation. The sanctioned individuals will be banned from entering the EU countries, and their assets in the EU, if they exist, will be frozen.

Mr. Navalny's colleagues expressed their satisfaction with the sanctions.

Ms. Maria Pevchikh, who directs with the Navalny's organisation anti-corruption investigations,  noted that the heads of law enforcement agencies, unlike ordinary employees, often travel abroad, and some have families there, now this road is closed for them, wrote the head of the FBK investigation department.

Biden's supporters including President himself tried to portray the sanctions as a dramatically different approach to Russia but the fact is that former US President Donald Trump's administration has imposed targeted sanctions several times not only on officials but also some Russian oligarchs.

The only difference was the division of labour in Joe Biden's administration.  President Donald Trump's State Department and Treasury Department had imposed sanctions. He would stay aside. But now Mr. Biden and White House are also actively involved.