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RUssland has imposed entry bans on representatives of the German government apparatus. This was announced on Tuesday to the Charge d’Affaires of the German Embassy in Moscow, Beate Grzeski, during a conversation at the Russian Foreign Ministry, according to the German Press Agency of the Foreign Ministry in Berlin. Moscow responds to EU sanctions for poisoning Russian opposition activist Alexej Navalnyj. Representatives of other EU countries are also affected by the measures.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said that, in response to the EU’s “confrontational” measures, it had decided “to expand the list of representatives of EU member states that are prohibited from entering the Russian Federation.” The ministry did not release names. He had previously invited high-level diplomats from Germany, France and Sweden. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Sakharova even spoke of a date. Initially there was no confirmation from Germany. The talk was more of an invitation. The convocation is seen as a serious step in diplomacy.
The EU imposed sanctions on Russian officials in October because, in its view, the poison attack on Navalnyj could not have taken place without the knowledge and approval of Russian state agencies.
The Russian news agency Ria Novosti reported in the morning that the French ambassador and representatives of the German and Swedish embassies had arrived at the Foreign Ministry in Moscow. Laboratories in these three countries had said that after the attack on Navalnyj, traces of poisoning with a nerve chemical agent from the Novichok group had been found.
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Navalnyj had collapsed in August during a flight within Russia. Two days later, he was taken to the Charité University Hospital in Berlin for treatment, in a coma. The laboratory results on Novichok poisoning were confirmed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
Navalnyj announced on Twitter on Monday that an employee of the Russian national intelligence service FSB had admitted to being involved in the attack on him. Navalnyj also posted a transcript and recording of the more than 45 minute phone call.
In a message to Russian news agencies, the FSB described the phone call as a “provocation”, which would not have been possible without the “help of foreign secret services”. Therefore, the FSB should be “discredited”; the recording published by Navalnyj was “false”.
