European Union-Russia Relations

The Czech Republic announced Saturday that it was expelling 18 Russian diplomats who it has identified as spies in a case related to a huge ammunition depot explosion in 2014.

"There is a reasonable suspicion that Russian secret agents of the GRU service were involved in the 2014 explosions of an ammunition dump in the Czech village of Vrbětice. The Czech Republic has consequently expelled 18 Russian diplomats.", wrote Prime Minister Andrej Babis on Twitter.

After the US intelligence officials concluded that the Russian government was behind the attack on Navalny, the Biden administration slapped sanctions on Russian individuals and entities

Tuesday's sanctions mark the first of several steps by the Biden administration to "respond to a number of destabilizing actions,'' said one of the White House officials.

Brussels imposed bans on travel and froze the assets in Europe of Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Igor Krasnov, the prosecutor general, Viktor Zolotov, head of the National Guard, and Alexander Kalashnikov, head of the Federal Prison Service

The German Green party is urging Angela Merkel to use the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to press the Kremlin over the poisoning of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Katrin Göring-Eckardt, the Green's co-chair, said: "This openly attempted murder through the Kremlin’s mafia-like structures should not just worry us but needs to have real consequences."

At her annual Summer press conference, Angela Merkel stated, "Our opinion is that Nord Stream 2 should be completed ... I don't think it is appropriate to link this business-operated project with the Navalny question."

Latvian National Electronic Mass Media Council announced it has banned the state-controlled Russian television channel RT. The ban will be valid for as long as Dmitry Kiselyov, network executive, remains on the list of sanctioned persons of the European Union’s.

The Council banned seven distinct channels belonging to the multilingual network operated by RT from being broadcast in the country, accusing RT of attempting to present Latvia as a failed state.

About 30 per cent of the country's population speaks Russian as a first language, with most of them being ethnic Russians.