White House To Announce Major New Russia Sanctions Package Friday

White House National Security Advisor John Kirby has told reporters that the White House will announce a, "major sanctions package on Friday" to "hold Russia accountable," for the death of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny.

• Kirby adds that the package is also, "quite frankly for all its actions over the course of this vicious and brutal war that has now raged on for two years."
• Kirby declined to detail any specific new measures and suggested that the, "most powerful" avenue "to stand up to Vladimir Putin," is for Congress to pass the USD$95 billion national security supplemental bill which is stalled in the House of Representatives.
• Kirby used his remarks to apply more pressure on House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to consider the Senate-passed package: "we had sat down and discussed this with Speaker Johnson... several weeks ago the importance of this supplemental funding... the Speaker got exactly what he wanted and then decided that he didn't want it, which was a bill that included billions of additional dollars for border security."
• Notably, Daleep Singh, a economic advisor who was the key architect of initial Russia sanctions, has returned to the White House. Bloomberg noted last week: "He is now expected to work on a number of initiatives, including shoring up supply chains, helping reform the World Bank, addressing debt issues in the global south, scaling up the US alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative and devising economic statecraft efforts to counter adversaries."