The European Union imposed sanction on Russian individuals in October over the incident with Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny, who underwent treatment in Germany for what Berlin claims was poisoning with a Novichok-like substance.
French Ambassador to Russia Pierre Lévy has arrived at the Russian Foreign Ministry as well as a representative of the Swedish Embassy and Germany's permanent deputy ambassador.
Navalny collapsed aboard a domestic Russian flight on 20 August. He received urgent medical help in Russia and then was transported to the Charite hospital in Berlin for further treatment. The German government then claimed to possess evidence of his poisoning with a nerve agent from the Novichok group, Sputnik reported.
In October, the European Union slapped sanctions on six Russian officials, including Federal Security Service chief Alexander Bortnikov, and a scientific institution over the incident with Navalny, a Russian opposition figure. In November, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced sanctions against unnamed administration officials in Germany and France as a mirror response to the EU restrictions.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has recently said that, in Germany's view, Russia had not done enough to investigate the incident, and that therefore, the EU's decision to introduce the sanctions was correct.
MA/PR