The EU is launching new sanctions against Russia for the detention of the Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
The foreign ministers of the EU countries agreed on Monday at a meeting in Brussels to start the necessary preparations for the punitive measures.
â–º The EU apparently wants to put four Russian officials on the penal list for taking action against the Kremlin critic Alexej Navalny.
Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (54, SPD) had campaigned for new sanctions before the start of the meeting: “I am in favor of giving the order here to prepare such sanctions and listing of individuals.”
The Putin critic Navalny was arrested in January after his return from Germany. He was subsequently sentenced to two years and eight months in prison in early February on bogus allegations for allegedly violating probation conditions in a previous criminal case.
At the time, however, Navalny was in Germany for treatment after a poison attack was carried out on him. He was in a coma at the Charité in Berlin for several weeks.
On Saturday (February 20), an appeals court dismissed Navalny’s appeal against the verdict. The court only canceled two months of his sentence – he has to go to a Russian prison camp for two years and six months (BILD reported).
Since his return to Russia, thousands of people have repeatedly demonstrated for Navalny across the country, against which the security forces have taken massive action.
#Navalny #case #launches #sanctions #Russia #politics
