On March 3, the U.S. imposed sanctions on six Russians who, it said, were involved in the arrest, prosecution or abuse of Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza.
The politician was detained in the spring of 2022 after speaking out against the war in Ukraine. He was declared a "foreign agent."
The sanctions, announced by the Treasury and State departments, target Russians Elena Lenskaya, Andrei Zadachin and Danila Mikheev for serious human rights abuses under the U.S. Global Magnitsky Act.
In a related action, the State Department imposed sanctions on Russia's Deputy Minister of Justice Oleg Sviridenko, Diana Mishchenko, who is the judge who ruled that Kara-Murza be arrested, and Ilya Kozlov, the judge who denied Kara-Murza's appeal of the arrest ruling, the department said.
Kara-Murza is currently being held on suspicion of spreading false information about the armed forces under new laws passed eight days after the Feb. 24, 2022 invasion of Ukraine began, according to Reuters.
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