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Russia must make tough response to EU sanctions over Navalny incident, says senator

First deputy chairman of the Federation Council’s international affairs committee, Vladimir Jabarov said that the Europeans had borrowed the Americans’ habit of imposing sanctions on Russia on any convenient occasion, for some far-fetched reason or without any reason at all

MOSCOW, October 15. /TASS/. First deputy chairman of the Federation Council’s international affairs committee, Vladimir Jabarov, believes that Russia should by all means respond to the European Union’s new sanctions imposed in connection with the incident involving blogger Alexey Navalny.

"It’s nonsense, frankly speaking, and a gesture of absolute disrespect towards our country. They say we are partners. No, partners never do such things. I believe that we should make a response, and a tough one," Jabarov told TASS.

Asked about what Russia’s sanctions might look like, he replied that this issue was being considered by the bodies of power concerned.

"But the response must be strong enough for them to feel it," he said.

Jabarov said that the Europeans had borrowed the Americans’ habit of imposing sanctions on Russia on any convenient occasion, for some far-fetched reason or without any reason at all.

"The most important detail is this. Take a look at the list of persons they have blacklisted: there’s the director of the federal security service FSB Bortnikov. This is a sure sign the FSB does a very good job. It is very successful in the struggle against terrorism, against the terrorist underground, it protects well our state secrets and exposes many agents of Western secret services. They obviously do not like this," Jabarov said.

The decision to include in this list two deputy defense ministers indicates that the Russian armed forces "cope with their duties in an excellent way."

"Also, on that list there are the first deputy chief of the presidential staff and chief of the internal policy directorate - the people who are responsible for the domestic political situation. They are there because the Western countries do not like them, too. There has been successful voting on amendments to the Constitution in all regions. The heads of regions were elected in a calm way," Jabarov said.

In his opinion it is unclear why the presidential representative in the Siberian Federal District Sergey Menyailo was included in the blacklist, too.

"Possibly it’s because the plane with Navalny on board was flying over the territory of the Siberian Federal District. This must have influenced the decision," he remarked.

EU sanctions

On Thursday, the EU Council issued a resolution saying that FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov and first deputy chief of the presidential staff Sergey Kiriyenko were included in the European Union’s blacklist in connection with the incident involving blogger Alexey Navalny. Personal restrictions were also introduced against the chief of the presidential directorate for domestic policies Andrey Yarin, deputy defense ministers Alexey Krivoruchko and Pavel Popov and presidential representative in the Siberian Federal District Sergey Menyailo. The restrictions envisage a ban on entering the territory of the European Union and a freeze on all financial assets in the European banks.

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. It argued that French and Swedish laboratories confirmed this.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said 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.