A senior State Department official blamed Russia for the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, citing the attack as the latest impediment to productive dialogue between Washington and Moscow.
“That’s not good for not just one of the leading opposition figures in Russia, personally, for the nature of the relationship between the Russian government and its society, but the signal it sends to the outside world,” George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary for Europe, said Wednesday during an event with the German Marshall Fund. “And so, I think, despite interest in trying to have an honest, transparent discussion with the Russians on certain policy issues, Russia frequently takes actions that complicate that path and that conversation,” he said.
