European Union Foreign Ministers backed a Franco-German plan on Monday to impose sanctions on Russians suspected of poisoning Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny with a nerve agent, diplomats said.
Berlin and Paris made their proposal at a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Luxembourg. They said they have not had a credible explanation from Moscow for what the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said was the presence of the banned Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok in Mr. Navalny’s body.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that Mr. Navalny’s poisoning could not “remain without consequences”. EU diplomats said there was broad support among the 27 Foreign Ministers for asset freezes and travel bans on several Russian GRU intelligence officials.
