US sanctions 4 Russians allegedly involved in poisoning of Alexey Navalny

The U.S. on Thursday sanctioned four Russians they say were involved in the 2020 poisoning of Alexey Navalny, the country's most well-known opposition leader.

The Treasury Department said the four individuals were members of Russia's Federal Security Service, or the FSB -- the main successor agency to the Soviet Union's KGB.

"Today we remind Vladimir Putin and his regime that there are consequences not only for waging a brutal and unprovoked war against Ukraine, but also for violating the human rights of the Russian people," Brian Nelson, the under secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in a statement.

"The assassination attempt against Aleksey Navalny in 2020 represents the Kremlin's contempt for human rights, and we will continue to use the authorities at our disposal to hold the Kremlin's willing would-be executioners to account," Nelson added.

Navalny, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's fiercest critics, was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent while on a plane to Moscow in August 2020. He was flown to Germany, where he received treatment and doctors confirmed he'd been poisoned.