Russians Alexander Petrov (Alexander Mishkin) and Ruslan Boshirov (Anatoly Chepiga), accused by London of poisoning a former GRU employee Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, came under US sanctions in the case of Alexei Navalny (founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, included by the Ministry of Justice in the register of organizations performing functions foreign agent) . This was reported on the website of the Ministry of Finance of the country.
They are listed for “participating in or attempting to participate in actions or transactions that could materially contribute to or create a risk of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction or their means of delivery.” It is clarified that formally, the sanctions regime against Russian citizens will not change, since the alleged “poisoners” of the Skripals have already been included in the list earlier. The FSB and the GRU also fell under US restrictions.
Earlier, the United States published a list of Russians who have come under sanctions due to the situation with Navalny. Among them are FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov, Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov, FSIN head Alexander Kalashnikov, Deputy Defense Minister Pavel Popov, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexei Krivoruchko, head of the Kremlin's internal policy department Andrei Yarin and others. In addition to them, the 27th Scientific Center of the Ministry of Defense, the 33rd Central Scientific Research Institute of the Ministry of Defense and the Scientific Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology (GosNIIOKhT) fell under the sanctions.
On February 2, the Simonovsky Court of Moscow replaced Navalny's suspended sentence with a real one for violating the conditions for observing the probationary period in the Yves Rocher case. He will stay in the colony for 2 years and 6 months, taking into account the year spent under house arrest during the preliminary investigation. The European Court of Human Rights has demanded that the Russian government release the oppositionist from prison as an interim measure. The Russian Foreign Ministry called the ECHR ruling an attempt to put pressure on Russia.
Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury on March 4, 2018. Experts found out that they were poisoned by the nerve agent Novichok. London blamed Moscow for the incident and named the alleged culprits – Petrov and Boshirov. According to an investigation by Bellingcat and The Insider, Boshirov is actually a career officer of Russian military intelligence, Colonel Chepiga, and Petrov is a military doctor, GRU officer Mishkin.
