Britain has officially announced the introduction of new tough sanctions against Russian chemical weapons developers directly involved in the creation of the dangerous nerve agent Novichok and the toxin epibatidine. The United Kingdom’s decision is directly linked to investigations into the circumstances surrounding the death in custody of opposition politician Alexei Navalny, as well as the death of British citizen Dawn Sturgess, who became an accidental victim and died after coming into contact with Novichok following an attempted assassination by Russian intelligence services against Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury.
The new restrictive measures are aimed at exposing and deterring the illegal activities of the Russian Federation in the development and use of prohibited chemical weapons.
The new British sanctions target two leading Russian research institutions and seven senior officials, including executives and scientists. The blacklist includes JSC Research Institute “Signal” and the State Scientific Research Testing Institute of Military Medicine of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Among the individuals subject to personal sanctions imposed by London are Signal Institute Director Artur Zhirov, his deputy Andrei Antokhin, the institute’s chief research scientist Alexander Makhlai, head of the fourth research department Ivan Kravtsov, and head of the first research center at the Signal Institute Viktor Taranenko. The updated sanctions list also includes Sergei Chepur, head of the State Scientific Research Testing Institute of Military Medicine, and Vladimir Kondratyev, director of the State Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology, while the institute itself has been under British sanctions since 2020.
In official documents, the British government emphasizes that Vladimir Kondratyev is a co-author of documents related to epibatidine toxin testing, while Andrei Antokhin and Viktor Taranenko were directly involved in studying the physicochemical properties and damaging effects of Novichok.
In a special statement, British authorities directly stated that only the Russian leadership had all the necessary technical capabilities, clear motives, and the opportunity to use the lethal toxin epibatidine against Alexei Navalny. Therefore, the United Kingdom considers Moscow fully responsible for his death.
London intends to continue publicly highlighting Russia’s repeated violations of the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention, consistently hold all responsible individuals accountable, and work closely with international allies to effectively deter the further use of this dangerous weapon.
