MOSCOW • Russia said yesterday that it was hitting EU officials with sanctions for their response to the poisoning of opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who the Kremlin said was suffering from "delusions of persecution".

The foreign ministry in Moscow summoned several senior EU diplomats before announcing the new travel bans.

In response to "confrontational" sanctions imposed by the bloc in October, Russia "decided to expand the list of representatives of European Union member states and institutions who will be denied entry to Russia".

The announcement came a day after Mr Navalny, 44, said in a report that he had impersonated an official in the Kremlin's Security Council and extracted an admission of guilt from a toxins expert with the FSB, Russia's security service.

In a video of the conversation published by Mr Navalny, the alleged FSB agent says agents placed poison in Mr Navalny's underwear this summer.

The anti-corruption campaigner was flown for treatment to Germany where labs concluded he had been poisoned with Novichok, a Soviet-designed nerve agent.

The video of his conversation with the alleged toxins expert, named Mr Konstantin Kudryavtsev, racked up more than 12 million views in less than 24 hours.

In a bombshell blog post, the Kremlin critic said he called Mr Kudryavtsev, claiming he was a chemical weapons expert with the FSB. "I called my killer. He confessed everything," Mr Navalny tweeted, adding that he presented himself as an aide to Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev.

The Kremlin yesterday described Mr Navalny as a "sick" man who was suffering from "delusions of persecution".

President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied that Mr Navalny's claims could discredit the FSB, adding that the opposition politician also exhibited "traits of megalomania".

"They say he compares himself to Jesus," Mr Peskov added.

Russia's counter sanctions were announced after Moscow summoned senior diplomats from Germany, France and Sweden, the three countries where labs have said Mr Navalny was poisoned with Novichok.

The findings resulted in EU sanctions against several Russian officials in October, including the head of the FSB.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE