The European Union implemented sanctions on Thursday against six individuals and one organization over the alledged poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
"The EU with this step has harmed relations with our country," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, describing the EU's actions as a "consciously unfriendly step" and promising retaliation.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov responded to the sanctions by threatening that Russia would take a similar course of action.
"The Germans are not planning to provide any facts, despite all international and legal obligations. We respond in kind. This is diplomatic practice," he said in an interview on Wednesday, DW reports.
