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Yesterday’s meeting between the EU and Russia diplomatic heads was overshadowed by the Navalny affair. And a scandal followed: Russia expelled three diplomats from the EU.
Josep Borrell responded without enthusiasm when a journalist asked him that it could only be repeated. “Of course we talk about the Navalny case and the arrested protesters,” the EU foreign affairs representative said at a press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. “We express our concern to Minister Lavrov and repeat our call for him to release Navalny.” You can repeat that three, four or more times, nothing changes.
Borrell’s visit to Moscow yesterday was the first visit by an EU diplomatic chief to Russia in three years. A visit that the Russian side ended with a scandal. It emerged late in the afternoon that he had expelled three EU diplomats from Germany, Poland and Sweden. The Russian Foreign Ministry alleged that the envoys participated in unauthorized protests over Navalny’s release. Borrell could only condemn this step by Russia and refer to the right of observation that diplomats have in their host countries under the Vienna Agreement.
Borrell had previously spoken of a “low point”, and Lavrov did not mince words: in the face of possible sanctions from Brussels, he described the EU as an “unreliable” partner. The refusal of the Europeans to the constant demands of the Russians to hand over the analysis of tissues of the poisoned, described as “impolite” and “arrogant”. Borrell announced that no EU member is currently proposing new sanctions, but the issue will be discussed at the EU summit in March.
The Spaniard would have liked to meet Navalny in Moscow, who was sent to prison for more than two and a half years by court order on Tuesday. A spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said Borrell and his people should negotiate the meeting themselves. But Navalny was indispensable. Yesterday he again appeared in court in Moscow, this time accused of defamation. Navalny tweeted angry words in July in a publicity video in which several model citizens were promoting Putin’s constitutional reform. He described them, among other things, as “affordable lackeys”, as “shame of the country and traitor.”
Additional penalty for Navalny
The court was adjourned until February 12. Most observers expected a guilty verdict. However, this time Navalny is not threatened with further imprisonment, but with fines or arrest. (scholl)
