US sanctions three people for abuse of Russian opposition politician

Vladimir Kara-Murza fell suddenly ill in what he said were poisonings by the Russian security service

Opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza was jailed after being accused of spreading false information about the Russian military. AP

The US on Friday imposed sanctions on three Russians it accused of serious human rights abuses against a Russian opposition politician who was arrested last year after speaking out against the war in Ukraine.

The Treasury Department said the sanctions are focused on Elena Lenskaya, Andrei Zadachin and Danila Mikheev for abuses under the Global Magnitsky Act.

Mr Kara-Murza, who holds both British and Russian citizenship and was a pallbearer at the 2018 funeral of former US senator John McCain, was a close aide to opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead in central Moscow in 2015.

Twice, in 2015 and 2017, Mr Kara-Murza fell suddenly ill in what he said were poisonings by the Russian security services, on both occasions falling into a coma before eventually recovering. Moscow denied involvement.

Mr Kara-Murza was arrested by Russia in April and declared a “foreign agent”. He is currently being held on suspicion of spreading false information about the armed forces under new laws passed eight days after the February 24 invasion of Ukraine began.

He has pushed for the US, Canada, EU and Britain to use Magnitsky-style sanctions against human rights abusers and corrupt actors in Russia, the Treasury Department said.