[1]: https://thegrayzone.com/2021/02/20/reuters-bbc-uk-foreign-of...
[1]: https://thegrayzone.com/2021/02/20/reuters-bbc-uk-foreign-of...
Yes. The US has been threatening sanctions on Russian businesses to stop the pipeline since 2019. The US finally issued the sanctions on ships involved in the construction, using the poisoning explicitly as a justification.[1]
A great deal of pressure was placed on Germany by the US to cancel it completely due to the poisoning, despite the several billion euros of investment already made by the country. The German government did not give in to the pressure.[2]
[1] https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/1/19/russias-gazprom-...
[2] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-politics-laschet-...
Edit: The US did not explicitly sanction entities involved in the construction of the pipeline because of Navalny, I got that mixed up with a European parliament push to do so. [3]
[3] https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20210119IP...
** They weren't trying to send a message and were relying upon the natural tendency of novichok poisoning to look like natural heart failure. Allegedly there were some other offed Russian oligarchs in London that were chalked up to that that were quietly revisited by the UK.
** It was a group within the GRU acting independently, as evidenced by:
* Russia almost begging the UK to be clued into the investigation at the beginning.
* The history of Soviet agencies acting independently.
* The chaos in 1991 leading to lots of "disappeared" military equipment (I'm almost certain some novichok got "lost").
* The fact that Skripal was probably deeply hated within the GRU who would be more revenge oriented (in which case assassination makes sense) while Putin would be more focused on geopolitical advantage (in which case it doesn't). I can well imagine the fury the GRU had at seeing Putin allowing him to retire to a nice cottage after his treachery.
The timing of the assassination just before Putin's election almost looks like it might be about sending him a message.
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2018/10/09/ful...
This is the soviet way and business-as-usual, and they are still ruled by people who got these ways drilled in the brain in the height of the cold war while working for KGB. What else can you expect from such people. Bear in mind, very, very smart people, mostly highly functioning sociopaths like in many other top positions.
They don't care much about western condemnation or sanctions, those don't touch those who hold power (even specifically targeted ones). In contrary - it helps foster the us-vs-they mentality in state controlled media. There is a lot of macho behavior, and even president has to/wants to show some of it since its expected.
People tend to think how much has world moved since end of cold war. Well for Russia and its powergames, very little. Try to look at these things from perspective of cold war optics, and events like Ukraine, Georgia, poisonings etc. do look as usual tug of war of the past.
[1] https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-uk-government-p...
Because it acts as a deterrent to others interested in following in their footsteps.
“I can kill you at any time with no repercussions and I’ll deny it with a smile on my face because I can.”
Putin is busy trying to imprison anyone associated with or protesting for the release of Navalny. That is as telling as anything. It wasn’t the west.