EU extends sanctions for one year over Navalny and Skripal poisoning

The Council of the European Union has extended "restrictive measures against the spread and use of chemical weapons" for a year, according to a message published on the organization's website.

Thus, they will be valid until October 16, 2022, the EU Council indicated. The sanctions regime, they said, “aims to support the efforts of the Union to counter the proliferation and use of chemical weapons, as well as to support the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction (CWC)” .

The EU sanctions list on this matter now includes 15 people and two organizations, the EU Council recalled, noting that the sanctions imply a ban on their entry into the EU countries, as well as a freezing of accounts. In addition, the organization noted that citizens and organizations from the EU are prohibited from financing those who are on the sanctions list.

For the first time, the EU introduced a sanctions mechanism of this kind in 2018 after an emergency meeting of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) at the request of the UK. Then the British authorities accused the Russians Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov of involvement in the poisoning of ex-GRU officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with the Novichok military nerve agent.