US President Joe Biden met the wife and daughter of Alexei Navalny, a staunch critic of President Vladimir Putin, who died in a Russian prison.
The White House said that the meeting was held on Thursday (February 22) local time.
The US President met with Navalny's wife Yulia and his daughter Dasha Navalnya and expressed his sincere condolences for their terrible loss. Biden called the slain Navalny a man of incredible courage.
Speaking to reporters, Biden reiterated that Washington was planning to impose broad sanctions on Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, over Navalny's death.
According to a White House statement, Biden confirmed that the new ban will be announced this Friday.
During the meeting, the US President praised Alexei Navalny for his extraordinary courage and fight against corruption and his fight for a free and democratic Russia, the statement said.
Meanwhile, Navalny's mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, said Thursday that Russian authorities were trying to force her to bury Navalny in secret.
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that Russian authorities should return Navalny's body to his mother. So that he can properly bury his son.
Navalny has been in prison since 2021. The opposition leader had been in solitary confinement in a prison (penal colony) in northern Siberia since late last year. Last Friday (February 16), prison authorities said that 47-year-old Navalny died in prison. Various reports have been heard about his dead body. His body has been sent to the morgue for autopsy, according to the jail authorities. But Navalny's party said they found no body at the morgue.