MOSCOW, October 15. /TASS/. Moscow will give a response to the European Union’s new sanctions "that will best serve the interests of the Russian Federation," Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.

"Moscow will undoubtedly analyze the situation and will act in compliance with its own interests," the presidential spokesman said.

The new EU sanctions against Russia are a deliberate unfriendly step, which lacks any logic, Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"Much to our regret, this is a deliberate unfriendly step against Russia. The Council of the EU harmed relations with our country by making this decision," he said.

In his view, "the sad aspect of this issue is that no logic can be seen in such a decision." "These are probably the aggravating circumstances of the decision made by the Council of the EU," Peskov added.

EU sanctions

Director of Russia’s Federal Security Service Alexander Bortnikov, First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Sergei Kiriyenko and four other high-ranking Russian officials were put on the EU’s blacklist against Russia over the incident with blogger Alexei Navalny, the Council of the European Union said in its regulation published in the Official Journal.

Among those added to the list is also Chief of the Presidential Domestic Policy Directorate in the Presidential Executive Office Andrei Yarin, Deputy Defense Ministers Pavel Popov and Alexei Krivoruchko and Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Siberian Federal District Sergei Menyailo.

"In these circumstances, it is reasonable to conclude that the poisoning of Alexei Navalny was only possible with the consent of" the above mentioned officials, the document reads.

The sanctions list also includes the State Scientific Research Institute for Organic Chemistry and Technology (GosNIIOKhT). EU businessmen will be banned from maintaining any ties with the institute.

The EU restrictions stipulate an entry ban and freezing financial assets in European banks.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on October 14 that Moscow would respond in kind to the EU’s anti-Russian sanctions over the incident with Navalny.

Navalny’s ‘poisoning’ saga

Russian blogger Alexei Navalny was rushed to a local hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk on August 20 after collapsing on a Moscow-bound flight from Tomsk. He fell into a coma and was put on a ventilator in an intensive care unit. On August 22, he was airlifted to Berlin and admitted to the Charite hospital. He woke up from the coma on September 7 and was released on September 22.

On September 2, Berlin claimed that having examined Navalny’s test samples, German government toxicologists had come to the conclusion that the blogger had been affected by a toxic agent belonging to the Novichok family.

On October 6, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed that biomarkers of the cholinesterase inhibitor found in Navalny’s blood and urine samples had similar structural characteristics as the toxic chemicals added to the Chemical Weapons Convention’s Annex on Chemicals in November 2019. At the same time, this cholinesterase inhibitor was not listed in the Annex on Chemicals to the Convention, it said.

Moscow stated on many occasions that Germany and the OPCW had failed to provide any official proofs to Russia. Kremlin Spokesman Peskov stated numerously that Russia was ready for comprehensive cooperation with Germany. He pointed out that no poisonous substances had been detected in Navalny’s system prior to his transfer to Berlin.