Russia imposed visa bans on seven Britons | News from Germany about Russia

Russia, in response to British sanctions against alleged accomplices in the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, has banned seven British people from entering the country. These British “are closely involved in anti-Russian activities,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a commentary released on Friday, December 17.

In August – a year after Navalny was poisoned – the UK imposed visa bans on seven Russian intelligence officers allegedly involved in the assassination attempt on the opposition leader. Moscow called the move “an unwarranted anti-Russian attack.”

Poisoning and arrest of Navalny

Alexey Navalny nearly died as a result of a poisoning attempt in Russia on August 20, 2020. After being delivered to Germany for treatment, the Bundeswehr laboratory found traces of the Novichok chemical warfare agent in his body. The Russian politician was recovering from poisoning in Germany for several months.

Upon returning to Russia in January 2021, he was detained and subsequently sentenced to several years in prison on charges of violating the rules of serving a suspended sentence. In the world community, Navalny’s verdict was regarded as politically motivated.

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Poison “Newbie” and its victims
Russians are under suspicion
On September 5, the UK prosecutor’s office announced that it has evidence that Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned by Russians Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov. The British authorities did not rule out that these names are fictitious.

Poison “Newbie” and its victims
Path of the Suspects to Salisbury
British police also said they have numerous surveillance footage of the Petrov and Boshirov suspects in the Skripal poisoning, from Gatwick Airport, from a station in London and from a station in Salisbury (pictured).

Poison “Newbie” and its victims
The same bottle
Also on the website of the police was published a photo of the packaging and a bottle of perfume, in which “Novichok” was allegedly delivered to the UK.

Poison “Newbie” and its victims
How it all started
The world media recalled the Soviet-made nerve agent Novichok in the spring of 2018, after an elderly man and a woman with signs of severe poisoning were found unconscious in the British town of Salisbury near London on March 4. They turned out to be a former double agent, ex-GRU colonel Sergei Skripal, who lives in Great Britain, and his daughter Yulia.

Poison “Newbie” and its victims
The Skripals were saved
According to the director of the Salisbury hospital, where the Skripals were taken, they were “in critical condition.” However, the treatment, in the effectiveness of which even the doctors themselves did not believe, was crowned with success: in April Yulia Skripal was discharged from the hospital, in May her father left the hospital.

Poison “Newbie” and its victims
Disputes about the country of origin of the poison
The then British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson, in an interview with DW, expressed confidence in the Russian origin of the “Novichok”, which, according to London, the Skripals were poisoned. Earlier, the British Prime Minister Theresa May, who expelled 23 Russian diplomats from the country, announced the responsibility of the Russian Federation for the poisoning. 27 more countries followed suit. Moscow firmly denied all accusations.

Poison “Newbie” and its victims
One of its creators told about “Novinchka”
The world first learned about the nerve agent developed in the USSR from an article in the Moscow News newspaper in 1992. Its co-author is the Soviet chemist Vil Mirzayanov, one of the developers of Novichok. According to him, Novichok is “at least ten times more powerful than any nerve agent.” Later Mirzayanov said that more than one ton of substances of the Novichok group had been produced in Russia.

Poison “Newbie” and its victims
New case of poisoning near Salisbury
On July 4, Wiltshire County police reported a new case of poisoning near Salisbury: On June 30, in the town of Amesbury, 44-year-old Salisbury resident Don Sturges and 45-year-old Charlie Rowley from Amesbury were found unconscious in one of the buildings. Doctors suggested that the reason was the intake of substandard drugs or an overdose by the victims. The police admitted possible contact with an “unknown substance”.

Poison “Newbie” and its victims
Again “Newbie”
Sturges and Rowley were hospitalized in critical condition in Salisbury, where Skripali received treatment. On the same day, the head of the Scotland Yard counterterrorism department, Neil Basu, announced that the reason for the poisoning of Sturges and Rowley was a nerve agent from the Novichok group, which had previously been poisoned by the Skripals. According to him, the results of the study came from the Porton Down laboratory.

Poison “Newbie” and its victims
Death of Don Sturges
On 8 July, the British Metropolitan Police Service announced that Don Sturges had passed away. The police opened an investigation into the murder charge. Media speculated that Sturges and Rowley might have found the container in which Novichok was delivered to Salisbury, or a syringe containing the leftover substance. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov, commenting on the incident, noted that no one mentioned Russia in connection with him.

Poison “Newbie” and its victims
New accusations against Russia and denials of Moscow
On July 9, British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson, responding to a parliamentary inquiry about the existence of a threat to the population, said that Russia was responsible for the death of Don Sturges. “The simple truth is that Russia launched an attack on British soil that killed a British subject,” Williamson said. The Russian Foreign Ministry called Williamson’s accusations a “mantra” about “the Russians did it.”

Poison “Newbie” and its victims
Where was Novichok kept? Looks like in a bottle of perfume
How did Britons Charlie and Don get involved with poison? A certain bottle of perfume was allegedly picked up in the park, one of the relatives testifies. But if that was the case, how did the bottle of poison get into the park? The police have not yet confirmed the version of the perfume bottle, but have confirmed that they believe the source of the poison is a “small container” found in Charlie Rowley’s house in Amesbury.

Poison “Newbie” and its victims
400 items for analysis
In total, the police took over 400 items from the house where the British victims were and handed them over to the laboratory for analysis. Specialists on site have to wear special suits to avoid contamination. The body heats up quickly in them, so the actual work in the home is limited to only two intervals of 15 minutes a day, The Guardian reported.

Poison “Newbie” and its victims
Are the perpetrators of the crime known?
On July 19, new details appeared in the Skripals case. The British news agency Press Association reported that Scotland Yard had identified the perpetrators of the assassination attempt. Investigators are confident that the suspects are from Russia, the agency said in a statement. However, British Security Minister Ben Wallace denied this information, calling it “wild speculation.”

Poison “Newbie” and its victims
Chemical weapons development center in Shikhani will be closed
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered from January 1, 2019 to abolish the closed administrative-territorial unit (ZATO) Shikhany in the Saratov region, where the Novichok poisonous substance was allegedly produced. The corresponding presidential decree was published on July 17.

Poison “Newbie” and its victims
The poisoning of Alexei Navalny
On August 20, 2020, Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny fell ill on the plane on which he flew from Tomsk to Moscow. The airliner urgently landed in Omsk. Navalny was hospitalized and connected to a ventilator. Companions of the oppositionist believe that he could have been poisoned with something mixed into the tea he drank in the morning at the airport. Omsk doctors denied the poisoning.

Poison “Newbie” and its victims
Transportation of Alexei Navalny to Berlin
On August 22, 2020, the comatose politician was delivered to Berlin. Doctors at the Charite Clinic discovered signs of poisoning with a substance from the group of cholinesterase inhibitors. The German Chancellor and the German Foreign Minister called on Moscow to identify and prosecute those responsible for the poisoning.

Poison “Newbie” and its victims
Angela Merkel: Navalny is poisoned by the poison of the Novichok group
On September 2, 2020, the conclusion of toxicologists of the Bundeswehr special laboratory was published that the samples taken from the Russian undoubtedly contained traces of a nerve agent of the Novichok family. German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel called Navalny’s poisoning “an attempt to murder one of Russia’s leading opposition politicians.”
Author: Irina Filatova, Fabian Schmidt, Sergey Gushcha