Opposition leader Alexei Navalny speaks during an anti-Vladimir Putin rally on March 5, 2012. International observers blamed Navalny's 2024 death on Epibatidine. File Photo by Yuri Gripas/UPI | License Photo
July 6 (UPI) -- The British government on Monday announced sanctions for seven Russians and two institutes of scientific research over the 2024 killing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
The announcement details sanctions for those involved in researching, developing and producing Novichok and Epibatidine, the deadly nerve agents and toxin used to poison Navalny and Dawn Sturgess.
Two leading scientific centers were included in the sanctions: SC Signal and GNIII VM. SC Signal is a Russian state institute of scientific research and GNIII VM is the State Research Institute of Military Medicine.
"Russia's repeated use of chemical weapons is a sickening violation of international law and a direct threat to global security," Yvette Cooper, Britain's foreign secretary, said in a statement. "From the use of Novichok nerve agents in Salisbury to Epibatidine in Siberia, poisoning Dawn Sturgess and Alexei Navalny, Russia continues to use barbaric tools to inflict death and suffering on innocent civilians, including in Ukraine."
