Britain imposed sanctions in August on seven Russian officials suspected of planning or implementing Navalny poisoning. Russian officials working for the Russian security service have had their funds frozen and barred from entering Britain.
“In response to the unfriendly activities of London, and on the basis of reciprocity, it was decided to impose personal sanctions on a proportionate number of British representatives who are closely involved in anti-Russian activities,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
“They have been barred from entering the territory of the Russian Federation,” the ministry added, without providing details of the seven individuals.
Navalny was ill on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow on August 20 last year, and was taken to Omsk Hospital unconscious with symptoms of poisoning.
On August 22, Navalny was transferred from Russia to Germany, where he was treated at the Charite University Clinic in Berlin. On 2 September, Germany stated that indisputable evidence had been obtained that Navalny had been poisoned by a nerve-paralyzing warfare substance belonging to the Novichok group. This conclusion has also been confirmed by laboratories in France and Sweden, as well as by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
Navalni believes he is poisoned by the Kremlin, which has repeatedly denied it.
After returning from Germany, Navalny was detained at Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport on January 17. On February 2, Navalny was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for violating the terms of his suspended sentence in 2014 while receiving treatment in Germany.
Western intelligence says Navalny was poisoned by Russian security forces.
Britain-Russia relations have been strained since Alexander Litvinenko, who became a critic of the Kremlin from a Russian secret service agent, was poisoned in London in 2006. He died after drinking tea contaminated with radioactive polonium-210 in a hotel in London.
The investigation found that Litvinenko was killed by Russian intelligence, presumably with the consent of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Relations between the two countries deteriorated further in 2018 following an attempt in the United Kingdom to poison former Russian double agent Sergei Skrippa and his daughter. A substance belonging to the Novičok group was also used to poison them.
This led to the expulsion of diplomats in the capitals of both countries.
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