The Biden Administration on Tuesday announced it is slapping sanctions on seven Russian officials for the poisoning and jailing of opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who almost died after becoming ill on a flight in August 2020, CNN reports.

Russian courts recently sentenced Navalny to 30 months in a labor camp for an alleged parole violation, after Navalny returned to Russia following treatment in Germany for poisoning with the nerve agent Novichok, a Soviet-era toxin not available outside of Russia.

The United States joined the European Union in sanctioning Russian officials, increasing the impact of the punishment.  The administration also announced that the Commerce Department will add fourteen Russian operations to its sanctions list for engaging in the production, distribution and use of chemical agents used in the Navalny attack.

A vocal critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin and the ruling Russian oligarchy who has undertaken independent investigations into Russian corruption, Navalny has been targeted by the Russian government in an effort to silence him, as happens with people who oppose Putin.

Navalny was poisoned, allegedly by Novichok being put in his underwear, prior to a flight from Tomsk to Moscow and became violently ill on the flight.  The flight made an emergency landing in Omsk allowing Navalny to get life-saving treatment, and he later moved to a German hospital to get out of Russia.

Donald Trump refused to sanction Russia for the attack, although intelligence reports and statements from Russian agents firmly put responsibility for the poisoning onto the Russian government.