EU foreign ministers back Franco-German on Russian sanctions

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 say 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 Navalny’s body.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters as he arrived at the meeting earlier on Monday that the poisoning could not “remain without consequences”.

“France and Germany propose imposing sanctions on certain people that caught our eye in this respect,” Maas said, without giving any details.

EU diplomats told Reuters there was broad support among the 27 foreign ministers for asset freezes and travel bans on several Russian GRU military intelligence officials.

The sanctions are not expected to be approved immediately, as legal texts must be prepared and cleared by experts from the 27 EU states.