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Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide writes in an email to NRK that Norway “has politically supported the EU’s regime of action with regard to the use of chemical weapons.” We also support the new EU listings. ‘
According to the Reuters news agency, the EU will announce sanctions against six named individuals on Thursday. Among them are the head of the FSB security service, Alexander Bortinikov, and Vladimir Putin’s deputy commander, Sergei Kiriyenko.
They both belong to the inner circle surrounding the Russian president. Kiriyenko was also prime minister of Russia for a short time in the late 1990s, heading Russia’s Atomic Energy Agency.
The sanctions mean that these people can no longer enter the EU. At the same time, all the values they may have in the form of real estate and deposits in EU banks are frozen.
The seas: Navalny in the first interview: – Putin was behind the poisoning
Poisoned by Novitsjok?
Alexei Navalny was poisoned during a visit to Siberia in late August. He survived after being treated at a hospital in Germany.
Several studies have shown that the poisoning is due to a toxin belonging to the Novitsjok group, which developed in the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Russian authorities have denied that Navalny was poisoned. They call it a campaign to blacken Russia.
Both Germany and France have asked Russia to launch an investigation into the poisoning. The foreign ministers of France and Germany said last week that the Russian authorities had not come up with what they called “a credible explanation.”
Read also: Navalny posted a photo of himself with his family.
Russia will respond
Russia has said it will respond in kind. Therefore, it can affect Norwegian politicians and officials.
“Of course, the policy that the EU is pursuing now will have consequences,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference in Moscow on Wednesday.
It has also been suggested that Russia could break much of formal cooperation with the EU if sanctions are introduced.
The final list will only be published when the sanctions take effect.
According to Reuters, controversial Russian businessman Yevgenik Prigozin, often referred to as Putin’s chef, should also be on the list.
Prigozin has been behind the so-called troll factory in St. Petersburg, which is suspected of being behind attempts to influence the 2016 US presidential election campaign. He has also helped finance Russian mercenaries, who have been sent to Ukraine, Syria and Libya.
Alexei Navalny says he will return to Russia now that treatment at the Berlin hospital has ended.
