EU Foreign Ministers Agree To Sanction Russia Over Navalny Case, Begin Preparing Details

EU Foreign Ministers Agree to Sanction Russia Over Navalny Case, Begin Preparing Details

Foreign ministers of the European Union have reached an agreement during a council on Monday to impose sanctions on Russia over the poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said

HELSINKI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th October, 2020) Foreign ministers of the European Union have reached an agreement during a council on Monday to impose sanctions on Russia over the poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said.

"EU foreign ministers have reached a political consensus over the introduction of sanctions against Russia in connection with the poisoning of Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny. The preparation of the sanctions list begins," Haavisto said at a press conference.

On August 20, Navalny was hospitalized with suspected poisoning in the Siberian city of Omsk after feeling unwell during a domestic flight. Russian doctors found no traces of poisons in his samples and suggested he could have suffered an abrupt drop of glucose in his blood due to metabolic disbalance.

Two days later, the 44-year-old was flown to Germany for further treatment under medically-induced coma. The German government claimed on September 2 that it had found traces of a Novichok group nerve agent in his samples.

Russia has demanded that Germany provide evidence and make case materials available to Russian investigators. At Moscow's request, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) sent a technical mission to assist the Russian investigation. Last week, OPCW confirmed Navalny's samples contained traces of a toxic substance, albeit not one registered by the organization as prohibited.

Navalny was let go from the Charite hospital in Berlin on September 23. The man himself is convinced that the Kremlin is behind his poisoning. Russia has slammed the whole case as a plotted conspiracy theory, pointing to multiple inconsistencies in Berlin's statements and the extreme politicization of the OPCW.