The European Union has given the green light this Friday to a new package of sanctions against six Russian-nationality researchers and scientists, whom it links to the poisoning and subsequent death of opposition leader Alexei Navalni. The politician was found dead in February 2024 with traces of epibatidine, a toxin classified as a chemical weapon according to international regulations.
The sanctioned individuals are specialists in the military field, several of them with a background at the Signal Scientific Center (also known as SC Signal), where they conducted research and published works on the synthesis of epibatidine, thus contributing to its development as a chemical weapon.
Among the names singled out is Igor Babkin, head of the SC Signal laboratory, as well as Irina Dereviagina, a chemical research analyst at the State Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology of Russia (GosNIIOKhT), considered a key player in the Russian chemical weapons program.
The Council has also included Mikhail Gutsalyuk, head of the department for the organization of scientific work and training of scientific and pedagogical staff at the Russian Military Academy of Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense, in the list, according to the statement released by the member states.
Individuals included in this restrictive regime will have all their assets and funds within the EU frozen, and it is prohibited to provide them with funds or economic resources, directly or indirectly, or for their benefit. Likewise, they are banned from entering and transiting through the EU territory.
"The EU maintains its full commitment to counter the proliferation and use of chemical weapons, and to support the provisions established in the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Storage and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction (CWC)," the letter reads.
On March 22, 2018, the European Council ruled that the use of chemical weapons, including the use of any toxic chemical substance as a weapon under any circumstances, is "completely unacceptable" and must be "systematically and rigorously condemned," as it constitutes "a threat to the security of all."
This new package of measures comes after on June 15 the Twenty-seven agreed to sanction an entity and 15 individuals —among them judges, prosecutors, Federal Security Service agents, and health personnel— for their involvement in the persecution, poisoning, and death of Navalni.
In that same decision, IPJSC NTK was also included, a company that cooperated with the Moscow Department of Information Technologies in the development of a facial recognition system used to monitor and detain independent journalists, opponents, and peaceful protesters related to Navalni and critics of the war against Ukraine.