BRUSSELS, October 14. /TASS/. The Committee of Permanent Representatives in the European Union on Wednesday agreed on a sanction list against Russia over the incident with blogger Alexey Navalny, considerably reducing it in contrast to the original draft from nine persons to five, a diplomatic source in Brussels confirmed to TASS.
"I can confirm that the ambassadors achieved an agreement on a personal list of restrictions. There are some five persons on it. Their names will be disclosed in the EU Official Journal later," he said. Originally, Germany and France suggested the EU take sanctions against nine individuals.
All persons on the blacklist will be prohibited from entering the European Union for one year. Their financial assets in the EU, should any be found, will be frozen. The sanctions may be eventually prolonged, if not overturned by the European Court of Justice.
Navalny case
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 was discharged from it 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 9, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recalled once again that neither Germany nor the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons had shared with Russia any official proof. He stressed that Germany had ignored four official queries from the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office over the case in defiance of international law. He voiced certainty that the German side would never be able to present any evidence.
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.