Disproof
Recurrent pro-Kremlin narrative which disputes the UK's imposition of sanctions on Russia, insisting that the United Nations Security Council is the only relevant international actor who can do so, while claiming that Moscow is still waiting for evidence regarding the poisoning of Alexei Navalny.
Restrictive measures have been imposed by the EU in relation to the poisoning of Navalny since 2020, with the UK being a member of the Union at that time.
As of 1 January 2021, after the end of the Brexit transition, the UK sanctions regime in relation to Russia is set out in the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (SI 2019/855).
The UK government has made it clear that it will continue to implement the EU’s Chemical Weapons sanctions regime at the end of the Transition Period, through its own autonomous UK Chemical Weapons sanctions regime.
On a similar note, the EU has the competence to impose sanctions independently of the UN to further the objectives of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), namely a) promoting international peace and security, b) preventing conflicts, c) supporting democracy, the rule of law and human rights and d) defending the principles of international law, as the EU did in the case of the illegal annexation of Crimea. The poisoning of Navalny falls in the context of applying restrictive measures (sanctions) to support democracy, rule of law and human rights.
Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny fell ill during a flight from Siberia to Moscow on the 20th of August. Initially hospitalised in Omsk, at the request of his family he was transferred to Charité hospital in Berlin, where clinical findings indicated that Navalny was poisoned by Novichok. This was also confirmed by France and Sweden, and later on by the OPCW (which Russia is also a member of).
Furthermore, Germany also informs Russia via diplomatic channels on the progress of the investigation.
See similar cases in our database claiming that the EU destroyed relations with Russia; or that the Navalny poisoning could be a strategy of the West to introduce anti-Russian sanctions; or that only traces of alcohol and caffeine were found in Navalny's blood; or that the US used Navalny case to block Russian vaccine; or that Western accusations on Navalny’s case are as false as they were about Sergei Skripal and Alexander Litvinenko.
