European Union foreign ministers agreed Monday in Luxembourg to impose sanctions on Russia over the poisoning of dissident Alexei Navalny, according to three diplomatic sources told AFP.
These three sources indicated that there is a political agreement to start work on finalizing the proposals submitted by France and Germany.
"The idea is to move quickly," one diplomat declared.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons confirmed that Navalny was the victim of a nerve poison of the Novichok type, which was used for military purposes and produced by Soviet experts.
France and Germany proposed to their partners to accept the inclusion of persons and a Russian company that produces Novichok, whose use is prohibited, on the European list of sanctions related to chemical weapons.
The list includes eight names and a research center in Syria. The European sanctions prohibit the issuance of visas, freeze assets in the European Union and prohibit access to European funding.
