The European Union imposed sanctions on top Russian officials close to President Vladimir Putin on Thursday in an unexpectedly robust and swift response to the August poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
Pushed by France and Germany, where Navalny was treated after collapsing on a flight from Siberia, the EU targeted six Russians and a state scientific research centre, according to the bloc’s Official Journal.
Unlike the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain in 2018, when the EU took almost a year to sanction military intelligence agents, the bloc targeted officials it believes planned and helped carry out the poisoning.
Andrei Yarin, head of the presidential policy directorate, Sergei Kiriyenko, Putin’s first deputy chief of staff, Sergei Menyaylo, Putin’s envoy to Siberia, Alexander Bortnikov, the director of Russia’s Federal Security Service and two deputy defence ministers were targeted.