Vasily Maximov/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The European Union is preparing to impose financial sanctions on six high-ranking Russian officials from the Defense Ministry, domestic spy service and the Kremlin who are believed to have been involved in the poisoning of Aleksei A. Navalny , the prominent Russian opposition leader. The individuals, who face asset freezes and travel bans to the European Union, are believed to have had direct knowledge of the poisoning or were involved in the planning, three senior European officials said on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity because details of the sanctions had not yet been made public. Several of those facing penalties are members of the tight circle of elites who for years have surrounded the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin: Aleksandr Bortnikov, the head of Russia’s domestic spy agency, the Federal Security Service; Sergei Kiriyenko, first deputy chief of staff in the presidential […]