Russia will impose new restrictions on the UK in response to the London sanctions in the case of Alexei Navalny. This was reported by the Kommersant newspaper with reference to sources in the Russian Foreign Ministry.
According to the newspaper, British Ambassador to Russia Deborah Bronnert will be summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, December 30. It is expected that the Russian Foreign Ministry will inform her about the expansion of the list of citizens of the United Kingdom, who will be banned from entering Russia.
This step will be Moscow's response to the sanctions previously imposed by the UK on Russian citizens over the incident with Alexei Navalny. “The answer is mirrored and includes six senior UK officials associated with the military chemical program and associated with the military laboratory at Porton Down. In particular, it includes two deputy ministers, the head of the secret service, the leadership of the scientific and technical laboratory of the British armed forces, “the source said.
Alexei Navalny's health deteriorated sharply during the flight from Tomsk to Moscow on August 20, the plane made an emergency landing in Omsk. On August 22, the oppositionist was taken to a Berlin clinic, whose specialists announced the discovery of traces of a substance from the Novichok group in the Russian's body. Russian doctors, who also conducted research, found no poisons. After his recovery, Navalny announced the involvement of the Russian leadership in his poisoning.
On October 15, the European Union imposed sanctions against six Russians and one research institute over the situation with Navalny. In particular, the director of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, the head of the Russian president's internal policy department, Andrei Yarin, and others, fell under the sanctions. Following the EU, the UK imposed restrictions. Last week, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that, in response to the sanctions, it will expand the list of representatives of the EU member states that are banned from entering the country.
