Vladimir Ryzhkov: "New sanctions against Russia are of an unprecedented nature"

The list includes the director of the FSB Alexander Bortnikov, the first deputy head of the presidential administration of the Russian Federation Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of the presidential administration for domestic policy Andrey Yarin, the plenipotentiary envoy to Siberia Sergey Menyailo, deputy defense ministers of the Russian Federation Pavel Popov and Alexei Krivoruchko. Also, sanctions are imposed on one Russian organization: the State Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology (FSUE GosNIIOKhT). On the eve of the announcement of these sanctions, the details of which in general were already known thanks to leaks and were reported, in particular, in the New York Times , the situation at the radio station Ekho Moskvi was commented on by the politician Vladimir Ryzhkov.

“This list is interesting in several ways. First, the circle of organizations, government organizations that will be included in it, if this list is reliable. Pay attention: the head of the FSB, Bortnikov, is included in this list, and the FSB is a key institution of power in Russian politics; two deputies of Sergey Shoigu were caught.

That is, the intelligence of the European Union and their experts believe that the Ministry of Defense was involved in the poisoning in the same way as the FSB, apparently, we are talking about the notorious GRU, which, as you remember, already figured in the Skripals case.

Another structure - indeed, this is curious - is the part of President Putin's Administration that deals with domestic politics, including the fight against the opposition.

This is the first deputy Sergei Kiriyenko and the head of the Internal Policy Department Yarin. This is interesting, it means that analysts, intelligence officers and politicians of the European Union believe that in Russia there is close coordination between the FSB, the Ministry of Defense, represented, most likely, by the GRU, and the Office of the President's Internal Policy. And that the decision to poison the leading opposition politician was made by the three institutions of power, I have listed, agreed at the level of a political decision, determining the perpetrators, techniques and operations to carry out this grave crime.

And the fourth organization - it is not a powerful organization, I don’t remember the exact name now, the Institute of Organic Chemistry (talking about the State Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology (FSUE GosNIIOKhT ) - note "NI"), is the structure that is attributed to development of all these varieties of "Novichok", or rather, the continuation of Soviet developments; these developments are prohibited by the treaty banning chemical weapons.

Thus, I would pay attention not only to individual names, but I would place special emphasis on the list of organizations, power structures and their combination. It is very important to emphasize this: the Ministry of Defense, the FSB, the President's Internal Policy Department and the direct developer of the poisonous substance, the defense institute that is officially engaged in the elimination of chemical weapons, and it seems to be accused of not only eliminating, but also developing and creating opportunities for the use of chemical warfare agents.

This is a very important decision.

It is clear that for Bortnikov, two of Shoigu's deputies, and even Kiriyenko, who came to Moscow at the invitation of Nemtsov and was one of the flags of Russian liberalism, on a personal level, this is likely to change little.

Because the same Bortnikov has long been under sanctions for Crimea and Donbass.

But at the level of political and symbolic responsibility, this is a very serious and, I would say, a harsh decision of the European Union.

In fact, it will mean: that intelligence and EU experts, having studied all the information they have, came to the conclusion ... By the way, if you pay attention, in leaks in the New York Times and in other foreign media, the word "proof" is used several times - that is, we are not talking about highly likely - that is, "very likely", but they use the concept of "proof", this is a very serious term, they just do not rush. When talking about evidence, as a rule, it is not an empty phrase.

So, all this means that on the political and symbolic level, if this list is published, the authorities of the European Union and the EU countries - and this, first of all, Germany and France ... By the way, many drew attention to the fact that the decision on the sanctions was made unanimously, which means that our friends from Hungary, Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria and so on voted for him; and we are talking about evidence of the involvement and responsibility of three key state structures - the FSB, the Ministry of Defense and the Presidential Administration, and one military-technical structure, to the poisoning of Alexei Navalny. This is a very important fact, although many do not yet understand and do not realize its significance.

But our program is called “Minority Opinion” - and my dissenting opinion is that this is an extremely important fact, indicating the political responsibility of the country's leadership for the poisoning of Navalny and specific state structures, which, according to the European Union, are behind this poisoning.

The discovery for our society here is that our structures rarely act in concert.

This is a philistine myth that the Russian state is a well-built, efficient corporation where decisions are made in concert, and so on.

This is not so: rather, here we can talk about a poorly managed mess, if we talk about how our state administration is arranged.

But in this case, we are talking about something else - about an extraordinary event, about an extraordinary fact - the poisoning of a leading Russian politician with a chemical warfare agent, which is prohibited by international law and Russia is part of this agreement on the non-use of chemical warfare agents, on their undevelopment and the complete destruction of those military toxic substances that were developed in the Soviet Union.

So this is an extraordinary fact. And if our largest foreign economic partner, which is the EU, which we have in first place in terms of investments, in mutual trade, we are the main market for them, it is for us, and so on, - using the term "proof" several times, puts in blaming three key government bodies of the country and one military-technical institute that they are behind the poisoning of Navalny, this indicates that the EU is confident that in this particular extraordinary case there was a close coordination of all these structures.

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that nothing like this has happened before. Previously, sanctions were imposed against specific generals, specific officials, a lot of sanctions were imposed against enterprises that had something to do with something, but in such a way that the Presidential Administration, the Ministry of Defense, the FSB plus a military scientific institute ...an unprecedented case.

And this is also important because the EU sanctions are a reference point for other countries. That is, this will greatly affect the attitude towards the Russian leadership and the aforementioned structures not only among the EU countries, but also in many other parts of the world.

It's not that Kiriyenko will suffer personally - most likely, he will not suffer in any way, maybe he will even be given an order for this as a victim.

But such a statement contained in this decision, if it is published, is a very difficult political and symbolic statement, it is, in fact, an accusation thrown at the top leadership of Russia".

The entire interview with Vladimir Ryzhkov can be viewed here.