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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday that his country has approved sanctions against government representatives of Germany and France, in response to those nations’ measures against Moscow in the case of opponent Alexei Navalni.
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Russia rejects German Navalni’s allegations of illness
In an interview with local and foreign media, Lavrov explained that Russia’s countermeasures target Germany as the “driving force behind these European Union (EU) sanctions”, which “directly affect senior office officials. Russian presidential. “, he said.
He added that the actions that Moscow will deploy “will be like a mirror” and will be imposed “against top officials in the offices of leaders” of both nations. “We will inform our German and French colleagues soon,” he said.
The Russian Foreign Minister did not rule out that Navalni had been poisoned with toxic substances in Germany or on board the plane that took him to a Berlin clinic where he was treated.
“Questions arise, that people, besides doctors, were on board this plane,” said the official, who urged us to think “who might have been involved in this story outside of immediate medical circles.”
On 15 October, the EU announced that it had sanctioned the director of the Russian Federal Security Service, Alexander Bortnikov, the first deputy chief of staff of the Presidential Executive Office, Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of the Presidential National Policy Directorate, Andrei Yarin, Deputy Defense Ministers Alexei Krivoruchko and Pavel Popov, as well as the Presidential Representative in the Siberian Federal District, Sergei Menyaylo.
Navalni disease and treatment
On August 20, Russian blogger and opponent Alexei Navalni was admitted to a hospital in the city of Omsk, Siberia, after suffering a collapse during a flight between Tomsk, Siberia, and Moscow. Due to a coma, he had to go into intensive care. Two days later he was flown to Berlin and admitted to Charite hospital, where he was discharged on 22 September.
Earlier that month, Berlin claimed that government toxicologists had examined samples of Navalni and concluded that he had been shot by a toxic agent belonging to the Novichok family, banned under international conventions. Germany also reported that this result has been confirmed by laboratories in France and Sweden.
At the time, the Russian authorities stated that no poisonous substances had been detected in the Navalni system prior to its relocation to Berlin and that they were ready for comprehensive cooperation with Germany on this case. The German Ministry of Foreign Affairs was also officially invited to submit scientific evidence and medical records, but this did not happen.
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