EU-Russia meeting on, despite pressure
Will use session to push for Putin critic’s release, European envoy says
BRUSSELS — Despite pressure from some European Union countries Monday to sanction Russia further after the arrest of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and thousands of his supporters, the bloc’s top foreign policy official will go ahead with a visit to Moscow early next month and meet with Russian officials first.
The official, Josep Borrell Fontelles, will press the Russian government to release Navalny, according to diplomats in Brussels, and if not, new sanctions are possible. The decision came during a rare in-person meeting of the EU’s 27 foreign ministers in Brussels.
Borrell’s trip to meet with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, is expected after Feb. 2, when Navalny faces a court hearing that could send him to prison for several years. His supporters have called for people to keep up the pressure, and specifically to take to the streets again Sunday, two days before the hearing.
Navalny strategist Leonid Volkov tweeted Monday for more demonstrations Sunday in “all Russian cities. … For Navalny’s freedom. For our freedom. For justice.”
In a news conference, Borrell said the foreign ministers had condemned the Russian crackdown on Navalny and his supporters and called for their release. He said he would be pleased to meet Navalny, and his situation would be a topic of discussion during his visit, but the trip was primarily to discuss strategic relations with Russia before a summit of European leaders in March.
European leaders are “ready to react” and to act “according to circumstances,” Borrell said. While the foreign ministers differed about how to respond to Moscow, there were no concrete proposals made, so there was no need to make decisions now, he said.
Tens of thousands of Russians rallied for Navalny in the streets of more than 100 Russian cities Saturday in the biggest demonstrations the country had seen since at least 2017. Several thousand were arrested and sometimes beaten, bringing protests from the new Biden administration as well as European countries.
The European diplomats discussed imposing fresh sanctions on Russia on Monday after pressure from several capitals for a tough line, but decided to wait to see what happens to Navalny and the outcome of Borrell’s visit.
In October, the European Union imposed sanctions on six Russian officials and a state research institute over the poisoning of Navalny in August with Novichok, a deadly nerve agent created in Russia during the Soviet era.
In the latest sign of how Navalny’s campaign has shaken the Kremlin, President Vladimir Putin of Russia on Monday took the unusual step of responding personally. He denied an extensive report by Navalny and his team that was released last week about the president’s purported “palace” on the Black Sea. The video has bee viewed more than 86 millio times on YouTube, undersco ing the Kremlin’s vulnerabili on the internet, which is most uncensored in Russia.
“Nothing that is describe as my property there ever b longed to me or my close rel tives, and never did,” Putin sa in a televised video conferen with university students. Th video alleged that the vast, la ish property, said to includ vineyards and an undergroun hockey rink, was controlled b Putin friends and close ass ciates who were holding it f him.
Asked about Saturday protests, Putin said “all peop have the right to express the point of view within limits, ou lined by law.” He referenced th Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Cap tol and said those taking pa in it were facing “between and 25 years, as if for domest terrorism.”
“They also came out wi political slogans. But outsid the law. Why should everythin outside the law be allowe here? No,” Putin said.
The European diplomats discussed imposing fresh sanctions on Russia on Monday after pressure from several capitals for a tough line, but decided to wait to see what happens to Navalny and the outcome of Borrell’s visit.