The Russian Foreign Ministry doubts the possibility of further cooperation with the European Union because of the actions taken by the union in connection with the case of Alexei Navalny. This is stated in the department’s responses to questions sent to the media ahead of the annual press conference of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The Foreign Ministry stated that in 2020 there was a serious decline in relations between Moscow and Brussels. In particular, the department accused individual EU member states of trying to prevent the use and production of Russian vaccines against coronavirus in the European Union. According to the ministry, instead of rethinking the approach to Russia, the EU countries continued their sanctions policy and interfered in the affairs of neighboring Belarus.
“The apogee of the unfriendly steps was the actions in connection with the so-called” poisoning “of Navalny, which called into question the very possibility of building further cooperation with the European Union,” the department said. Nevertheless, the ministry assured that Moscow will not “take the position of the offended” and is determined to build a mutually respectful dialogue when Brussels is ready for this.
Earlier, MEPs voted for a resolution calling for the immediate blocking of the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline due to Navalny’s arrest. In addition, parliamentarians demanded that the Council of Europe take a tougher stance on this issue and introduce new sanctions against Russia.
The detention of Navalny at Sheremetyevo airport became known on Sunday, January 17. This happened on the basis of the decision of the head of the Federal Penitentiary Service in Moscow, according to which the oppositionist was put on the wanted list for systematic violations of the conditions of the probationary period. On January 18, he was arrested for 30 days.
Before his arrest, he was in Berlin, where he was delivered on August 22, 2020. Two days earlier, during the flight from Tomsk to Moscow, Navalny felt unwell, the plane was urgently landed in Omsk.