“We have told the Russian government that what is happening to Mr Navalny in their custody is their responsibility and that they will be held accountable by the international community,” Sullivan told CNN’s Dana Bash on State of the Union ‘. “In terms of the specific measures we would take, we are looking at different costs that we would impose, and I am not going to telegraph it publicly at the moment.”
“But we were told it would have consequences if Mr Navalny died,” he added.
Navalny said in a post on his official Instagram account on Friday that he was being threatened with force-feeding while continuing a hunger strike. He returned to Russia in January from hospitalization in Germany, where he recovered from a nerve agent poisoning that was blamed on the Kremlin.
Asked by Bash why Biden did not use his platform to release Navalny this week, Sullivan said the White House has determined that private communications are more efficient.
“We have actually come to the conclusion that direct communication with the Russian government is about this issue – including how we see it, how our allies and partners see it and what could unfold as something terrible with Mr. “Navalny would happen. said Sullivan.
In his telephone conversation with Putin, Biden suggested holding a summit in a third-party country in the coming months. Later, the White House specified that the potential summit in Europe would take place if it did.
Sullivan declined to say on Sunday whether Biden would still agree to meet with Putin if Navalny died in prison.
“There is currently no summit on the books,” he said. “That’s something we’re talking about. And that summit will obviously have to take place in the right circumstances in a way that can actually move the relationship.”
“But I’m not going to get hypothetical about when or if the summit is likely to take place,” Sullivan said.
Anna Chernova and Zahra Ullah of CNN contributed to this report.