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Alexei Navalny: After the attack on him, the EU imposed new sanctions on Russian officials
Photo: Anadolu Agency / Getty Images
These are well-dosed punitive measures which, in the opinion of the representatives of the European Union, should target those who could be responsible for the attempted murder of the Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
The Russian opposition activist was poisoned with the internationally banned nerve agent Novichok and collapsed on August 20 during a domestic flight from Tomsk to Moscow.
Navalny suspects that Russian President Vladimir Putin is behind the poison attack on him.
The Kremlin continues to reject any involvement.
In its sanctions list, the EU now explicitly emphasizes that the use of Novichok allows the conclusion "that the poisoning of Navalny was only possible with the approval of the presidential office".
According to the statement, the punitive measures are aimed at individuals "who are believed to be responsible for this crime [...] because of their official function, as well as at an institution that is involved in the Novichok program".
She banned six Russian officials from entry and blocked their accounts, including two close confidants of Kremlin chief Putin, who is not mentioned.
Who are those affected?
The head of the powerful
FSB
domestic intelligence service
, Alexander Bortnikow:
Navalny had mentioned him in an interview with SPIEGEL as one of three possible state representatives who could give the order to deploy Novitschok.
Bortnikov leads the service for Putin in which the Kremlin chief began his career, back then he was still called the KGB.
The secret service has been busy shadowing and tracking Navalny and his team for years, including in Tomsk, as FSB employees themselves have spread, which the EU is now emphasizing in its decision.
There were also searches in Nawalny's offices and investigations against the opposition, in which the FSB was also involved.
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Alexander Bortnikow, head of the powerful FSB domestic intelligence service
Photo: Alexei Nikolsky / imago images / ITAR-TASS
The deputy chief responsible for Putin's domestic policy in the Kremlin administration,
Sergej Kirijenko
:
Kirijenko is considered to be very influential and has held the key position in the presidential administration since 2016.
Among other things, he is responsible for "political groups and activities", as the EU writes, which should also include the independent opposition.
Kiriyenko secured Putin's huge re-election as president in 2018 and, this year, helped organize the constitutional reforms that enable Putin to have terms of office beyond 2024.
According to research by journalists from the independent Internet portal "Projekt", it was Kirijenko who helped ensure that Navalny was not sentenced to a longer prison term, but instead was repeatedly discredited in the media and social networks.
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Sergej Kirijenko (left) with Vladimir Putin: He has been organizing domestic politics for the president since 2016
Photo: Mikhail Metzel / imago images / ITAR-TASS
Andrei Jarin, responsible for domestic politics in the Kremlin:
Jarin works closely with Kirijenko, and has always been involved with Navalny.
As the Kremlin-critical broadcaster "TV Rain" reported in 2017, it was Jarin who personally led the campaign against the opposition politician, which the EU now also mentions.
It happened after Navalny hit millions with his film about the possessions of then Prime Minister Dimitry Medvedev.
To date, the video has been viewed 36 million times.
Deputy Minister of Defense Pavel Popov:
The general has been in office since 2013 and oversees research in the military facilities.
He appeared publicly when he criticized Poland and Bulgaria for having Soviet monuments removed.
Deputy Minister of Defense Alexej Krivorutschko:
He has only had his post since 2018; before that, he was General Director of the Kalashnikov Group and head of the transport company Aeroexpress.
Navalny had reported corruption in Moscow's transport system in 2014, and Krivoruchko's name was also mentioned.
In the ministry, he is now responsible for the organization and development of weapons and special equipment for the military.
Both Krivorutschko and Popov have now been sanctioned because, according to EU information, they are responsible in the Defense Ministry for the destruction of chemical weapons from the Soviet Union, including the neurotoxin Novitschok.
Putin's Siberia Representative Sergej Menjajlo:
He has been responsible for the area where Navalny was poisoned since 2016.
The attack took place during a visit by the opposition to Tomsk, the EU believes that Menjajlo was involved.
From 2009 to 2011 he was deputy commander of the Black Sea Fleet and from 2014 to 2016 Putin's governor in Sevastopol after the annexation of Crimea.
Further development of Novichok
The EU countries also put the Russian state research institute for organic chemistry and technology on the sanctions list.
Officially, it conducts civil research, but according to Western intelligence services it was responsible for the development of chemical warfare agents in the Soviet Union, including Novichok.
Former employees such as Vladimir Ugljow have also reported on this.
Several laboratories and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) had detected a substance from the Novitschok group in samples of Navalny's blood and urine.
According to German security authorities, this is a further development of the poison, which was also detected in the attack on the former Russian-British double agent Sergej Skripal.
Reaction from Moscow: "Unfriendly step against Russia"
In Moscow, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov not only threatened equivalent counter-sanctions before the new EU sanctions were announced, but also thought out loud about ending the dialogue with her: Those responsible for EU foreign policy do not understand the need for something that is characterized by mutual respect Talking, he grumbled this week at a meeting of the "Valday Club", a group of hand-picked Russian and foreign political scientists.
"Maybe we should just stop talking to them for a while," he said.
"A deliberately unfriendly step against Russia," said the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, calling the EU sanctions.
The decision to make relations between the EU and Moscow dependent on a man "who is considered to be the leader of a certain opposition in Europe" is "of course only regrettable," added Peskov, who again did not use the name Navalny .
It can be assumed that the Kremlin will now quickly announce counter-punitive measures.
In addition, Moscow continues to try to pose as a victim.
Officials draw their own realities, speak of a great conspiracy against Russia - an attempt at a defense that is grotesque.
Peskov even went so far as to claim that the CIA was behind the attempted murder and that agents of the service were working with Navalny.
The opposition politician wants to take legal action against this statement.
It is not the only statement that is currently causing astonishment.
When Lavrov brought an interruption to the dialogue with the EU into play, the foreign minister explicitly mentioned EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
That would have said that a geopolitical partnership would not succeed with the current Russian apparatus.
To this said
a spokesman for the EU Commission for SPIEGEL only: "We have no idea what statement he is referring to."
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Assistance: Markus Becker, Brussels;
Alexander Chernyshev, Moscow