(Source: https://pixabay.com/ru/photos/флаг-европа-ес-европейский-удар-2608475)

Russia has expanded the list of non-entry EU representatives, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. The measures were taken in response to the EU sanctions imposed due to the incident with the opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

In this regard, representatives of the embassies of Germany, France and Sweden were summoned to the Foreign Ministry, where they were handed notes verbales. “On the basis of the principle of reciprocity, the Russian side made a decision to expand the reciprocal list of representatives of the EU member states that are prohibited from entering the territory of the Russian Federation. It includes those who are involved in escalating anti-Russian sanctions activity within the EU,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The Foreign Ministry does not name the people included in the list. According to Kommersant's information, ten high-ranking representatives of three countries will be blacklisted:
representatives of the leadership of the department of the Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany and the cabinet of the President of France,
two deputy heads of the Ministry of Defense of the Federal Republic of Germany,
representatives of the French Ministry of Defense,
management of the laboratories involved in the analysis of Alexey Navalny's samples.

The ministry called the EU's adoption of "illegal restrictive measures against a number of our compatriots under the pretext of their alleged involvement in the incident with the Russian citizen Alexei Navalny" categorically unacceptable. The statement said that the countries initiating this step did not provide evidence in the case.

The EU expanded the blacklist in October in connection with the alleged poisoning of Mr Navalny. It includes the first deputy head of the presidential administration, Sergei Kiriyenko, FSB director Alexander Bortnikov, and two deputy defense ministers. The Kremlin called the "Navalny case" a dubious reason for sanctions. The oppositionist himself called on the EU to impose sanctions on Russian oligarchs close to the president.