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Critics Demand Stronger European Response to Poisoning of Russian Dissidents

Henry Ridgwell

   LONDON - Europe is under growing pressure to offer a more robust
   response to Russia, following the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei
   Navalny in Siberia in August. German doctors say he was poisoned with
   Novichok, a Russian nerve agent.
   Navalny was flown to Germany for treatment and emerged from a coma in
   September. Doctors say he is making a good recovery. The Kremlin denies
   involvement in the attack. The 44-year-old leader of the "Russia of the
   Future" party says he plans to return to his home country to continue
   his fight against the government of President Vladimir Putin.
   German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said he expects the European Union
   to impose new sanctions on Moscow. "I am convinced that there will be
   no longer any way around sanctions," Maas told the news website
   T-online in an interview Saturday. "Sanctions must always be targeted
   and proportionate. But such a grave violation of the International
   Chemical Weapons Convention cannot be left unanswered. On this, we're
   united in Europe," Maas added.
   There are growing calls for Europe to take a harder stance against
   Moscow following a string of attacks in recent decades against
   opponents of the Kremlin, many on European soil.
   The Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko died from radioactive
   polonium poisoning in London in 2006. Britain says the Russian state
   carried out his killing.
   Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were
   poisoned with Novichok in 2018, the same agent allegedly used against
   Alexei Navalny and produced only by the Russian state. Both Sergei and
   Yulia Skripal survived, but a local woman died after coming into
   contact with the poison.

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