U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken sharply criticized Russia over its crackdown on protesters supporting jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny and said the United States was reviewing possible responses to Moscow’s actions.
Blinken told NBC News he was “deeply disturbed by the violent crackdown” on Russian protesters on Sunday and arrests across the country of people demanding the release of Navalny, a prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. More than 5,300 people were detained in a massive show of force.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Moscow would ignore Blinken’s comments and warned Washington against imposing any new sanctions.
“The Russian government makes a big mistake if it believes that this is about us,” Blinken said in the interview. “It’s about them. It’s about the government. It’s about the frustration that the Russian people have with corruption, with autocracy, and I think they need to look inward, not outward.”
Blinken did not…