MOSCOW, 23 December, 2020, (TON): Russia said it would impose entry bans on representatives of EU countries and institutions in response to EU sanctions placed on Russian officials over the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced the blacklist on its website on Tuesday, December 22.

The Russian side, acting on the basis of reciprocity, has decided to expand the list of representatives of EU Member States and institutions who will be denied entry to the Russian Federation. Among them are those who are responsible for promoting anti-Russian sanctions initiatives within the framework of the European Union,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said the EU Council’s “hasty and secretive” adoption of “illegitimate restrictive measures” ran counter to international law and that “unfriendly action by Western countries” had to be “met with an adequate response.”

In response to Navalny’s poisoning, the EU decided in October to impose travel bans and freeze the assets of six senior Russian officials, among them the head of the Federal Security Service, two deputy ministers of defense, and former Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko.

The EU sanctions were initiated by France and Germany. A laboratory in Sweden was responsible for independently verifying the conclusions of the German military specialists, who confirmed that Navalny was poisoned with a Novichok-type nerve agent.