(WASHINGTON) — Top members of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s team are pressing U.S. officials to pursue sanctions against 6,000 Russians who they say are among the “next tier” of those enabling Russian President Vladimir Putin and the invasion of Ukraine.

Members of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation met Thursday with members of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee, as well as officials with the Department of Justice and the Treasury Department, the group’s executive director, Vladimir Ashurkov, told ABC News.

Navalny has been held in a Russian jail since January of 2021, while his anti-corruption foundation is based outside of Russia.

Thursday’s meetings were part of a four-day trip to push the U.S. to take action against thousands of Putin supporters who Ashurkov said are outside of the super-rich, multi-billionaire class — and who still have time to decide what they want the future of Russia to look like.

“It’s a lot of officials, not necessarily at the top, but the next tier,” Ashurkov said.

“The average age for them is 45 years old, so they still have a life after Putin,” he said. “And they have to think hard about where they stand on this war and on Putin’s regime.”

Ashurkov said the 6,000 names have already been made public, which “creates for them motivation to step away and distance themselves from Putin’s regime.”

“And that’s what we want to achieve,” Ashurkov said.

Among the Justice Department officials the group met with were members of the department’s Kleptocapture Task Force, which was formed in March to target the assets of Russian oligarchs.

“We’re helping [the task force] with asset tracking for sanctioned individuals,” Ashurkov told ABC News. “We are arguably the most professional investigative outfit in Russia — so I think they benefit from our experience and from our work.”

Ashurkov also said he met with a group of Republican senators that included Lindsay Graham, Marco Rubio and Jim Risch, who Ashurkov said were “generally receptive.”

In addition, Ashurkov said his group was scheduled to meet with the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control, which handles sanctions programs. But he said there were no meetings scheduled with the White House.

Saying that sanctions alone are not “silver bullets” powerful enough to stop the war in Ukraine, Ashurkov said they’re one of the options available to Western allies to make an impact.

“They all have been really receptive to this,” Ashurkov said of the U.S. officials he had met.

“I think, really, people support the idea,” he said of the proposed sanctions. “I think during this trip we at least got the important lawmakers to be aware of our proposals and to support them.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Two Secret Service employees — an agent and an armed physical security specialist — in South Korea to prepare for President Joe Biden’s impending arrival are being sent home after an alleged alcohol-fueled incident that ended with a report being filed with local police, according to two sources briefed on the situation.

The personnel were assigned to help prepare for the presidential visit when they went out for dinner and then stopped at several bars, the sources told ABC News. As the evening progressed, the two Secret Service staffers became apparently intoxicated and the agent wound up in a heated argument with a cab driver, according to the sources.

Police were called and a report detailing the “altercation” was filed, one source said.

“The Secret Service is aware of an off-duty incident involving two employees which may constitute potential policy violations,” agency spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement to ABC News. “The individuals will be immediately returned back to their post of duty and placed on administrative leave. There was no impact to the upcoming trip. We have very strict protocols and policies for all employees and we hold ourselves to the highest professional standards. Given this is an active administrative personnel matter, we are not in a position to comment further.”

The agent who allegedly got into the argument with the cab driver is scheduled to be interviewed by local police before boarding a flight back to the U.S. The decision to send them home was made while the president was still en route to Asia.

The latest episode in the Far East carries echoes of the 2012 scandal in which Secret Service employees were investigated for drinking heavily and hiring prostitutes while preparing for a trip by then-President Barack Obama to Cartagena, Colombia.

Of the 13 agents first suspected of soliciting prostitutes in Cartagena, three were cleared of wrongdoing and returned to duty, six resigned or retired, and four had their security clearances revoked or were removed, according to a report by the Homeland Security Department inspector general issued in December 2013. According to the report, the agents in Colombia consumed as many as 13 alcoholic drinks “before engaging in questionable behavior.”

“The Secret Service conducts thousands of advances for protectees each year, including for the president overseas,” said retired senior Secret Service agent Don Mihalek, an ABC News contributor. “Through it all, the president has been kept safe and few incidents have arisen. Despite that, the Secret Service is made up of people, some who make mistakes. When they do though, the response has been thorough to ensure that the integrity of the mission is always maintained.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.