Russian sanctions against members of the German government in connection with the incident around blogger Alexei Navalny are unjustified. This was announced on Tuesday, December 22, at the German Foreign Ministry.
“Although such a scheme of Russian countermeasures is known from the past, the German government believes that it remains unjustified. This incident is not a bilateral affair, but remains an international affair due to a violation of international law related to the use of a chemical nerve agent, ”the ministry said.
They added that they call on the Russian Federation to investigate the use of a poisonous substance on its territory. Nevertheless, the country, as stressed in the German Foreign Ministry, does not express readiness for this, RIA Novosti reports.
Earlier on Tuesday, Russia banned several representatives of the German government apparatus from entering the state.
On the same day, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that Moscow would respond to the EU sanctions imposed due to the situation with the alleged poisoning of Navalny. The notes with the corresponding decision were received by the heads of the diplomatic missions of Germany, France and Sweden, summoned to the Foreign Ministry, and they were also sent to the EU mission in Moscow.
The ministry emphasized that unfriendly actions from Western countries will continue to receive an adequate response.
Navalny felt bad on August 20 when he flew from Tomsk to Moscow. The plane made an emergency landing in Omsk, the victim was hospitalized in the Omsk hospital, where doctors stabilized his condition. After that, the blogger was taken to the Berlin clinic “Charite”. On September 23, the Russian was discharged from a German hospital.
The alleged detection of signs of intoxication with a substance from the group of cholinesterase inhibitors in Navalny became known already upon his arrival in Germany. Omsk doctors did not find intoxication during the examination.
The German government said that the blogger was allegedly poisoned with a war agent from the Novichok group, without providing any evidence. Berlin and the EU countries blamed Russia for the incident. In mid-October, the European Union imposed sanctions on Russian officials.
Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov called the reason for the imposition of sanctions against Russia over the incident with Navalny more than dubious.