When Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with Soviet-era banned chemical weapon Novichok Aug. 20 in the Tomsk, Siberia airport, all fingers pointed toward 68-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin. Novichok was used two years before in Salisbury, England, poisoning former KGB operative Sergei Skripal March 4, 2018 and his daughter Yulia. So Putin lost his plausible deniability with typical Kremlin denials, claiming they had no idea what happened. Novichok is a banned chemical weapon under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention of which the Russian Federation was a signatory. Two unexplained Novichok poisonings in two years was enough for the European Union, slapping Moscow Oct. 15 with sanctions of six high-ranking Kremlin officials, including Federal Security Service [FSB] Director Aleksander Bortnikov and five members of Russia’s Defense Ministry.
EU officials generally turn the blind eye on Russian malfeasance because of their dependent relationship with Gasprom, Russia’s main energy supplier to the 27-member economic block. EU officials sanctioned Russia’s Scientific Research Institute for Organic Chemistry and Technology, responsible for “the destruction of chemical weapons stocks inherited from the Soviet Union.” When Navalny’s Novichok poisoning was corroborated by EU laboratories, it was a matter of time before they slapped the Kremlin with sanctions. “The use of chemical weapons constitutes a serious breach of international law,” said the European Council Oct. 15. European Council President Ursula Von Der Leyen said that Navalny’s poisoning must have the approval of Putin, prompting the EU sanctions. President Donald Trump, 74, did not follow up with any U.S. sanctions against Moscow.
Russia called EU sanctions “unacceptable” because Putin insists that no one in his government tried to poison Navalny. Putin said Dec. 17 at his yearend press conference that if he wanted to “finish off” Navalny, he would have Aug. 20, denying that he had anything to do with Navalny’s Novichok poisoning. Were it not for an emergency flight from Tomsk to Berlin for lifesaving treatment, Navalny wouldn’t be around. “:I assert that Putin was behind the crime, and I have no other explanation for what happened. I’m not saying this out of self-flattery, but based on the facts. The most important fact is Novichok,” Navalny told German’s Der Spiegel. Laboratories in Germany, France and Sweden confirmed the presence of Novickok, a banned chemical weapon only available to the Russian Federation. Putin likes to attribute these events to rogue elements or theft of Russia’s banned chemicals.
Hitting the EU back with his own sanctions, Putin played offense, knowing that he holds the cards when it comes to the EU’s dependence on Russian energy. Banning key EU officials for Russia, Putin hopes to send Brussels a message that they can’t mess with the Russian Federation. “In these circumstances, it is reasonable to conclude that the poisoning of Alexei Navalny was only possible with the consent of the Presidential Executive Office,” said the EU. Putin went one step more sanctioning EU officials, he actually ousted them from the Russian Federation. Putin called on senior diplomats from Germany, Sweden and France to notify their embassies that they must leave the Russian Federation at the earliest possible time. “We will continue to respond appropriately to unfriendly actions by western countries,” said the Russian Foreign Ministry on its Wesbsite.
Russia’s foreign ministry follows Putin’s lead very carefully, especially when it comes to responding to EU sanctions. Putin remembers well Dec. 31, 2016 when former President Barack Obama ousted 35 Russian diplomats from Washington, pushing U.S.-Russian relations to post-Cold War lows. Obama claimed that Putin meddled in the 2016 presidential election, handing the election to Trump. It was easy to blame Moscow when the real meddling happened at the Obama White House, Department of Justice, FBI, CIA and National Security Agency [NSA], working cryptically to prevent Trump from the presidency. When that backfired Nov. 8, 2016 with Trump beating Hillary, U.S. government agencies spent the better part of Trump’s presidency trying to remove him from office. Trump never bought the Democrat narrative that the Kremlin influenced the 2016 presidential election results.
Biden’s incoming administration promises to further deteriorate U.S.-Russian relations, with Biden promising more economic sanctions on Russia’s alleged hack of U.S. government agencies. Biden was part of Obama historic bad relations with Russia, based in large part on former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s bogus “dossier” that made wild accusations against Trump. Democrats never accepted Trump’s presidency, working day-and-night to see him removed from office. Before the Nov. 3 vote, Democrats claimed that Putin was still meddling in U.S. elections, like he did in 2016. After the election, when Biden won, Democrats stopped talking about Russian meddling, now that their candidate won. Whatever happened with Navalny or more recently the hack of SolarWinds network management software, Biden looks to turn back the clock and U.S.-Russian relations.
