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According to unofficial information, the list of sanctions, including people and officials close to the Kremlin, is currently being finalized.
“A political agreement on the EU’s response to the Navalni events is expected at the Foreign Affairs Council on Monday, with the completion of a group of influential people and officials close to the Kremlin proposed to be sanctioned,” said a source from BNS in a statement.
The Baltic states and Poland have been the main drivers of imposing sanctions on Moscow, and more countries have recently expressed support for this.
The EU Foreign Affairs Council will meet in Brussels on Monday.
On the eve of this, an informal meeting of ministers with the closest comrades of A. Navalnas Leonidas Volkovs and Ivan Ždanovs is being organized at the initiative of Lithuania, the SNB has been approved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Foreign Minister Gabriel Landsberg says this will help EU ministers get a first-hand look at the situation in Belarus.
“When communicating with EU colleagues, we feel a great need for information about the real situation with opponents of the regime in Russia. It is always better to hear the situation first-hand, so Lithuania has taken the initiative to organize a meeting with representatives of the Russian opposition in Brussels, “said the minister in a comment sent to BNS.
The minister declined to comment on the possible imposition of sanctions because the process is not public.
The oligarchs are likely to avoid sanctions
The Kremlin-backed oligarchs, including those who directly benefited from the recent imprisonment of Russian opponent Alexei Navalna, will not be subject to European Union (EU) sanctions for the time being, diplomatic sources said.
The foreign ministers of the EU member states, meeting in Brussels on Monday, February 22, will agree to freeze only the funds of Russian officials who contributed to the imprisonment of A. Navaln, and they will not be issued visas to travel to the EU. , advertises euobserver.com.
The EU foreign service is looking to make the decisions “quickly” to take effect in a few weeks, an EU source said.
Only one eastern EU member state asked for a list of oligarchs when contacted by EUobserver on Thursday. Even the Baltic countries, which are extremely hostile to Russia, are currently satisfied with the minimalist solution.
“If we want to punish the oligarchs, we must ensure that we have a solid legal basis so that our decisions are not reversed by the court. [Rusijoje] is unlikely to improve, so we are exploring possible options and [sumanymas sudaryti oligarchų sąrašą] it could be implemented in the future, during the second wave of sanctions, “said the EU source.
On the other hand, Russia’s friendly EU member states, such as Austria, Cyprus, Greece and Hungary, should not veto Monday’s decision. In fact, few countries wanted to formally comment on anything before February 22. meeting.
“EU member states will discuss actions against Russia for the repression of peaceful protesters and the imprisonment of Navaln in violation of the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights,” said representatives of the German Foreign Ministry.
“We just want to draw attention to the fact that Hungary has joined the EU statement issued on February 3,” Hungarian Foreign Ministry officials said, referring to the statement condemning Navaln’s deal.
The EU reaction is not very strong, even despite the humiliated head of EU diplomacy, Joseph Borrell, whom the Russians decided to expel several European diplomats while visiting Moscow earlier this month. Furthermore, following Borrell’s visit, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov continues to criticize the EU. For example, he said on Monday that relations with the EU were reminiscent of a “corpse”. Russian diplomats later explained that the word “carcass” he used had to be translated into English as “carcass”, not “corpse”. But the clarification of the diplomats still portrayed the relationship with bright colors. “Relations can be bad, very cold and complicated, but not yet a corpse, at least not yet,” said the Russian diplomat.
Meanwhile, Germany is leading the EU’s minimalist response. The country believes that the new EU sanctions regime for human rights violations, which will apply to Mr. Navalno, only provides legal powers to prosecute direct perpetrators, but not their sponsors or financial beneficiaries.
However, Germany also wants to maintain good relations with Russia to complete the new Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project. Other EU member states argued that Germany’s interpretation of the EU sanctions for human rights violations was vague.
Legal twists and turns
The preamble to an EU law, unofficially known as the Magnitsky Law, in honor of a deceased Russian activist, lists a list of people who “commit serious human rights abuses or support those who commit such abuses.”
“I consulted our sanctions expert: as long as there is a legally justified link between the oligarchs and human rights abuses, these can be included,” said the EU diplomat.
For his part, Vladimir Ashurov, a close associate of A. Navaln who lives in London, said that at least eight important oligarchs met these criteria: Andrei Kostin, Igor Shuvalov, Alisher Usmanov, Oleg Deripashka, Alexei Miller, Igor Sechin, Gennady Timcharev and Nikolai.
The names of all these people were previously included in Navaln’s anti-corruption investigations, so silencing the opposition would be “directly beneficial” to them.
“It just came to our knowledge then [Deripaška] having fun on his yacht with a senior [Rusijos prezidento Vladimiro] Putin’s administration official. In the Escort Girls Society, men spoke of interfering in the United States (USA) elections. Marmalade [Deripaškai] The persecution of A. Navaln is directly useful, “said V. Ashurov as an example.
“I do not understand why Germany has taken such a limited position. Without a doubt, she [Vokietijos valdžios institucijos] “He is aware of many more crimes committed by Russian business and political elites,” Ashurov told EUobserver.
The other two allies of A. Navalnas, Leonidas Volkovas and Ivan Ždanovas, are likely to repeat the same when they meet with the media at the building of the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in Belgium on Monday in Brussels.
Meanwhile, the new US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will also attend a meeting of EU foreign ministers using video conferencing equipment to discuss relations with Russia.
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