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Russia to respond to potential sanctions over Navalny incident — diplomat

"Sanctions, restrictions, stop lists in international relations always lead to one thing: reciprocal measures," she said

MOSCOW, October 8. /TASS/. Russia is prepared to provide a symmetrical response to the sanctions that Germany and France may impose over the Navalny incident, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in an interview for Dozhd TV channel Thursday.

"Sanctions, restrictions, stop lists in international relations always lead to one thing: reciprocal measures," she said.

No proof has been presented on the Navalny case, Zakharova noted, adding that the allegations are supposed to be taken as fact. According to the diplomat, the West is not interested in getting to the bottom of the situation, but uses it as a pretext for imposition of sanctions.

"The Western biological clock made it crave new sanctions against our country; it needed a pretext, a motive, some kind of story," the diplomat underscored.

The Foreign Ministries of Germany and France said in their joint statement earlier that they will forward their proposals on additional sanctions over the Navalny incident, including personal ones, to their partners in the EU.

UK Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Dominic Raab and his Dutch counterpart Stef Blok also expressed their support of the German and French authorities.