Following on from the article reported in last week's update, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken has stated that he is “deeply disturbed by the violent crackdown” on Russian protesters. This includes the detention of more than 5,300 people who supported jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, a prominent critic of Vladimir Putin. Blinken stated that the US was reviewing possible responses to these actions to which the Kremlin responded saying they were ignoring these statements and warned against any imposition of sanctions.