German authorities have stated that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with the nerve agent novichok, the same substance that Russian intelligence agents used against Russian intelligence defector Sergei Skripal in Britain in March 2018. Back then, the United States responded by sanctioning the issuance of Russian sovereign debt, in accordance with America’s 1991 Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act. Financial markets reacted instantly, slashing the Russian ruble’s value by 2.5 percent.
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Anders Aslund: Russia’s aggression can and should cost Putin dearly
A woman holding a placard with an image of Alexei Navalny expresses support for the opposition leader after he was rushed to intensive care in Siberia suffering from what his spokeswoman said was a suspected poisoning, in downtown Saint Petersburg on August 20, 2020.
