Navalny poisoning: Confronting Russia, EU has limited options

September 03, 2020

Chancellor Angela Merkel has described the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, who is currently being treated at Berlin’s Charite Hospital, as “attempted murder.” Lab tests found that the nerve agent Novichok, which was developed in the Soviet Union, had “without a doubt” been used to poison the Russian opposition politician.

Merkel, joined by the European Union and NATO, has demanded an explanation from the Russian government. But the Kremlin has dismissed the accusations that Navalny was poisoned and said that it wants to examine the lab results. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has announced that Germany will confer with its partners on what an “appropriate answer” could be in the next few days.

Read more: Navalny, Novichok and Nord Stream 2 — Germany stuck between a rock and a pipeline

But what is an ‘appropriate’ response?

Political scientist Klaus Segbers argued in an article for the online version of Germany’s Zeit newspaper that there had been enough talk with the Kremlin. “It only makes sense to talk if minimum behavioral standards are observed and interests overlap at least a little,” he wrote. He explained that with its occupation of parts of Georgia and Ukraine, its shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 and its numerous attacks on opposition politicians, Russia had shown that it was not interested in communicating with the West.

Helmut Scholz, an MEP for Germany’s socialist Left party and its spokesman on foreign affairs, disagreed, arguing that it was important to intensify relations with Moscow. “I do not think that more escalation and confrontation will help the bilateral relationship at all,” he said. “We need cooperation,” adding that the Russian and EU secret services should also work together more and display a “sense of proportion and responsibility.”

Read more: Alexei Navalny: A Russian dissident battles Kremlin, Putin

Segbers and the chair of the Bundestags’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, Norbert Röttgen, called for sanctions and an end to the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline project that is almost 90% complete and intended to transport gas from Russia to Germany directly. Alexander Graf Lambsdorff from Germany’s business-friendly FDP party told DW that it would not make sense to put an end to the project completely, but said there should be a “moratorium” until the Navalny case had been resolved. He pointed out that Russia would not incur huge damages if the pipeline wasn’t completed. The gas would still be sold to customers in the West who needed it — it would just arrive via different already existing pipelines.

‘Limited means’ to pressure Russia

“We have to remember that the EU and Germany have very limited means of actually exerting pressure on Russia,” said Hans-Henning Schröder of the Institute for East European Studies at the Free University of Berlin. He told DW that the only real thing that would have an impact would be if Germany and the EU stopped importing Russian gas. “But that’s unrealistic because it would be extremely expensive and would demand a massive logistical reorganization.”

Read more: Russia’s city Khabarovsk rises against Vladimir Putin

According to the European Commission, oil and gas exports from Russia to the EU have increased in recent years despite the heightened tensions; half of Germany’s gas supplies come from Russia. “It would be wrong to react to Navalny’s poisoning with further economic sanctions, which would have an impact on companies and the Russian people that have nothing to do with the affair,” argued Oliver Hermes, the chair of the German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations.

Symbolic sanctions don’t do much

Over 150 Russian diplomats were expelled from the United States and the European Union, as well as other NATO states and Ukraine, after the 2018 poisoning of the former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the UK. In response, Russia expelled 189 diplomats, most of whom were from the UK and the US. But it’s hard to say exactly what impact this had on the ground.

“The symbolic sanctions imposed after Crimea and Ukraine, such as forbidding certain people from entering a country and freezing their accounts, are symbolic,” said Schröder. “They don’t change much in the relationship.”

Read more: Opinion: Will Vladimir Putin ride out the Navalny storm?

EU member states have regularly and unanimously extended sanctions imposed on Russian individuals over the ongoing Ukraine conflict. However, there has been much less unity in the EU as to what general approach should be adopted toward Russia and President Vladimir Putin.

His French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, has tried to maintain a “special relationship” with the Kremlin and has met with Putin more than any other leading EU politician to talk about geopolitical issues such as Syria and Libya, for example.

On its official website, Italy’s populist government claims to have “good and positive relations” with Russia. The same goes for Austria, whose government sees itself as a mediator between Russia and the West, although a recent spy scandal somewhat dampened this bilateral relationship.

The eastern EU member states which were either part of the Soviet Union or its wider orbit tend to be more vocal about their concerns regarding Russia. The Baltic states and Poland, for example, have had very little praise for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.

A history of political poisonings

Alexei Navalny

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was rushed to hospital in Siberia after being taken ill on a flight to Moscow. His aides allege he was poisoned in revenge for his campaigns against corruption. The 44-year-old ex-lawyer apparently only drank black tea before taking off from Omsk airport, which his team think was laced with a toxin that put him in a coma.

A history of political poisonings

Pyotr Verzilov

In 2018, Russian-Canadian activist Pyotr Verzilov was reported to be in a critical condition after allegedly being poisoned in Moscow. It happened shortly after he gave a TV interview criticizing Russia’s legal system. Verzilov, the unofficial spokesman for the rock group Pussy Riot, was transferred to a hospital in Berlin where doctors said it was “highly probable” that he had been poisoned.

A history of political poisonings

Sergei Skripal

Sergei Skripal, a 66-year-old former Russian spy, was found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping center in the British city of Salisbury after he was exposed to what was later revealed to be the nerve agent Novichok. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the situation “tragic” but said, “We don’t have information about what could be the cause” of the incident.

A history of political poisonings

Kim Jong Nam

The estranged half-brother of Kim Jong Un was killed on February 13, 2018 at Kuala Lumpur airport after two women allegedly smeared the chemical nerve agent VX on his face. In February, a Malaysian court heard that Kim Jong Nam had been carrying a dozen vials of antidote for the deadly nerve agent VX in his backpack at the time of the poisoning.

A history of political poisonings

Alexander Litvinenko

Former Russian spy Litvinenko had worked for the Federal Security Service (FSB) before he defected to Britain, where he became a journalist and wrote two books of accusations against the FSB and Putin. He became ill after meeting with two former KGB officers and died on November 23, 2006. A government inquiry found he was killed by radioactive polonium-210 which it alleged the men put in his tea.

A history of political poisonings

Viktor Kalashnikov

In November 2010, doctors at Berlin’s Charité hospital discovered high levels of mercury had been found in a Russian dissident couple working in Berlin. Kalashnikov, a freelance journalist and former KGB colonel, had 3.7 micrograms of mercury per litre of blood, while his wife had 56 micrograms. A safe level is 1-3 micrograms. Viktor reportedly told German magazine Focus that “Moscow poisoned us.”

A history of political poisonings

Viktor Yushchenko

Ukrainian opposition leader Yushchenko became sick in September 2004 and was diagnosed with acute pancreatis caused by a viral infection and chemical substances. The illness resulted in facial disfigurement, with pockmarks, bloating and jaundice. Doctors said the changes to his face were from chloracne, which is a result of dioxin poisoning. Yushchenko claimed government agents poisoned him.

A history of political poisonings

Khaled Meshaal

On September 25, 1997, Israel’s intelligence agency attempted to assassinate Hamas leader Meshaal, under orders from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Two agents sprayed a poisonous substance into Meshaal’s ear as he walked into the Hamas offices in Amman, Jordan. The assassination attempt was unsuccessful and not long afterward the two Israeli agents were captured.

A history of political poisonings

Georgi Markov

In 1978, Bulgarian dissident Markov was waiting at a bus stop after a shift at the BBC when he felt a sharp jab in his thigh. He turned to see a man picking up an umbrella. A small bump appeared where he felt the jab and four days later he died. An autopsy found he’d been killed by a small pellet containing a 0.2-milligram dose of ricin. Many believe the poisoned dart was fired from the umbrella.

A history of political poisonings

Grigori Rasputin

On December 30, 1916, mystic and spiritual healer Rasputin arrived at Yusupov Palace in St Petersburg at the invitation Prince Felix Yusupov. There, Prince Yusupov offered Rasputin cakes laced with potassium cyanide but he just kept eating them. Yusupov then gave him wine in a cyanide-laced wine glasses, but still Rasputin continued to drink. With the poison failing, Rasputin was shot and killed.

Author: Louisa Wright, Nik Martin