The head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said that he initiated sanctions against Russia in connection with the situation around Alexei Navalny (founder of the Anti-Corruption Fund, included by the Ministry of Justice in the register of organizations performing the functions of a foreign agent). The corresponding statement is posted in the Twitter -the politician’s account.
Borrell explained that sanctions against Russian high-ranking officials were introduced at his suggestion. The European diplomat called the reason for the inclusion in the sanctions list “serious violations of human rights”.
The new EU sanctions became known on Tuesday, March 2. The sanctions list includes the chairman of the Investigative Committee (IC) of Russia Alexander Bastrykin, director of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) Alexander Kalashnikov, head of the National Guard Viktor Zolotov, and Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov. They are banned from entering the EU countries, and they will not be able to keep funds in banks in EU countries. The Russian Foreign Ministry had earlier assured that they would not leave new restrictive measures unanswered.
On February 2, the Simonovsky Court of Moscow replaced Navalny’s suspended sentence with a real one for violating the conditions for observing the probationary period in the Yves Rocher case.