According to state news agency RIA Novosti, the Russian government has asked the ambassadors of Germany, France and Sweden to explain the sanctions that the European Union has imposed on Russia.
The sanctions followed the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
The EU imposed sanctions on high-ranking allies of President Vladimir Putin. According to the EU, the Russian government is behind the poisoning of Navalny. Investigative collective Bellingcat said it had evidence that Russian secret service FSB is behind the assassination attempt.
Navalny survived the poisoning and recovered in Germany. On Monday he published a video on YouTube in which he says he had contact with an FSB member who was ordered to kill him.
According to Navalny, that FSB member quietly explained their plan to poison him.
Russia has denied having everything to do with the case. The first doctors to treat Navalny also said no poison had been found. Putin recently said that Navalny was too unimportant to poison and if the FSB had figured it out, it would have worked.