UK imposes sanctions on heads of penal colony where Russia’s Navalny died

Cameron promises to hold those responsible accountable, as Navalny’s mother takes legal action to recover his body.

The United Kingdom has imposed sanctions on six officials overseeing the Arctic penal colony where Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny died.

The sanctions, announced by British Foreign Secretary David Cameron on Wednesday, target the head and five deputy heads of the IK-3 penal colony in Kharp in Russia’s Yamal-Nenets region, who now face a ban on entering the UK and will have their assets frozen.

“Those responsible for Navalny’s brutal treatment should be under no illusion – we will hold them accountable,” Cameron said.

“It’s clear that the Russian authorities saw Navalny as a threat and they tried repeatedly to silence him.”

The UK is the first country to impose sanctions in response to Navalny’s death, the Foreign Office said as it described him as “a political prisoner who dedicated his life to exposing the corruption of the Russian system, calling for free and open politics, and holding the Kremlin to account”.