Six Russian scientists connected to Alexei Navalny’s poisoning with epibatidine are now subject to asset freezes and travel prohibitions across the EU.

On Friday, EU member countries reached an agreement to impose sanctions on six Russian citizens involved with the chemical agent suspected of causing the death of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny while he was detained in a penal colony.

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The individuals targeted include scientists and researchers engaged in Russia’s military chemical weapons programme, especially those contributing to the development of epibatidine, whose traces were detected on Navalny’s remains following his death in February 2024.

Navalny was the leading opposition figure and anti-corruption campaigner in Russia. He was apprehended in 2021 on fraud accusations after returning to Russia post a failed poisoning attempt in 2020; subsequent extremism-related charges were also brought later that year.

He received a 19-year prison sentence and was transferred to a high-security Arctic facility, where he was reported dead on 16 February 2024. European inquiries have determined that his death was caused by chemical poisoning.

The sanctioned individuals comprise Igor Babkin, who heads the Signal Scientific Centre, the laboratory believed to have synthesized epibatidine.

Irina Derevyagina, a chemical research analyst at Russia’s State Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology, is also on the sanctions list; she is acknowledged as a key figure in Russia’s chemical weapons programme.

Mikhail Gutsalyuk, chief of the scientific department at the Military Academy of Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence, is similarly included.

The imposed sanctions involve freezing any assets these individuals hold within the EU, including their bank accounts, alongside a comprehensive travel ban across the European Union.