Kremlin: EU’s fresh sanctions on Russian nationals damage bilateral ties

Russia said the new round of sanctions imposed by the European Union (EU) against a number of its nationals, including aides to Russian President Vladimir Putin, over the alleged poisoning of the country’s opposition figure, Alexei Navalny, and Libya’s civil war, damage relations between the two sides.

According to Press TV, the European bloc on Thursday sanctioned Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian tycoon whose company caters for the Kremlin, on grounds that he acted to weaken the peace process in war-torn Libya through his alleged support of the Wagner Group private military company.

Furthermore, the EU sanctioned six other individuals over Navalny’s case, including head of Russia's FSB domestic spy agency, Alexander Bortnikov, chief of policy at the Kremlin, Andrei Yarin, and deputy Kremlin chief of staff, Sergei Kirienko.

The other Russian nationals sanctioned, include Putin's envoy in Siberia Sergei Menyailo and two Russian deputy defense ministers, Pavel Popov and Alexei Krivoruchko.

The Russian nationals subject to new EU sanctions are now banned from traveling to the EU and any assets they hold in the bloc will be frozen.

Brussels approved the sanctions after Germany and France last week proposed measures against individuals they deemed responsible for the alleged poisoning, as well as entities involved in Russia’s Novichok program.

Later on Thursday, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov denounced the sanctions at a press conference in Moscow, saying, “The EU with this step has harmed relations with our country.”

He also described the measures as a “consciously unfriendly step” on the part of the European bloc, vowing that Russia would retaliate.

SS