Russia blasts fresh EU sanctions over Navalny

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday it is disappointing that foreign ministers of the European Union had decided to prepare new sanctions against Russian citizens “under a farfetched pretext”.

Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, said earlier in the day that the foreign ministers of the bloc had agreed to impose restrictive measures against those responsible for the “arrest, sentencing and persecution” of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

The Russian ministry said in a statement it is “unacceptable” to make “unlawful and absurd” calls for the release of a Russian citizen convicted of economic crimes by a Russian court in accordance with Russian law.

“In international practice, this is called interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state,” it said.

“It is only regrettable that such illegitimate instruments — ultimatums, pressure and sanctions — are rooted in the EU’s foreign policy arsenal,” the ministry added.

“The myth of the EU’s own infallibility in the field of human rights was refuted on a daily basis” by police brutality and the attack on freedom of the media, it added.

News agency Agence FrancePresse said the sanctions against Moscow would target senior officials “deemed responsible for persecuting Navalny”, using the EU’s new human rights regime adopted last year.

The agency did not name the officials but quoted Borrell as saying that the limited move looks set to disappoint those calling for a tough response against Moscow.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the sanctions were intended to send a “statement that we are not prepared to accept certain things”.

“But it is also necessary that we continue to have a dialogue with Russia,” he said.

A ‘broken record’

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko dismissed the move as a “broken record”, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

The mood toward Moscow hardened across the EU after Borrell paid a disastrous trip to Moscow this month, during which the Kremlin expelled three European diplomats, AFP said.

The bloc has already hit Russia with waves of sanctions after Crimea was incorporated into Russia following a referendum in March 2014 that Ukraine and Western countries refuse to recognize.

In October, the EU put another six officials on a blacklist over an alleged poisoning of Navalny in August.

Navalny was jailed last month after returning to Moscow from Germany, where he had spent months recovering from the alleged attack that he blames on Moscow. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied it was behind the attack.