It was reported that European Union will impose sanctions on Russian officials for jailing Alexei Navalny (opposition leader and president Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic). The European Union head of foreign affairs service, Josep Borrell said that political agreement on the need for sanctions was reached among the 27 foreign affairs ministers of the European Union on Monday at a meeting in Brussels. Mr Borrell stated that Russia is drifting towards an authoritarian state and that the bloc would for the first time use “EU Magnitsky Act” which allows sanctions to be imposed for human rights abuses. Russia’s foreign ministry in response said that the European Union’s decision was disappointing. Our correspondent in Brussels learnt that the sanctions will target the Russian officials involved in arresting and jailing of Mr Alexei Navalny. Alexander Bastrykin whose investigative committee handles major crimes and reports directly to President Vladimir Putin was on the sanctions list. He (Alexander Bastrykin) is already on British human rights sanctions. Also Russia’s prosecutor-general (Igor Krasnov), the head of the National Guard (Viktor Zolotov) and head of the federal prison service (Alexander Kalashnikov) are on the list. Alexei Navalny was arrested in Moscow in January 2021 after he returned from Germany where he spent five months recovering from a nerve-agent poisoning that he blamed on Russia. Russian authorities have denied the accusation. Earlier this month, a court in Russia sentenced Alexei Navalny to two years and eight months in prison for violating the terms of his probation while recovering in Germany. Navalny’s arrest and imprisonment caused huge protests in Russia which the country’s authorities responded with crackdown and arrested about 11,000 people.
Source: Viewers Corner News.