31/08/2020 (Agence Europe) – On Monday 31 August, the spokesman for the European External Action Service, Peter Stano, regretted the impossibility of the EU discussing human rights in Russia with the Russian government, as Moscow refuses consultations on the subject proposed by the EU, until the Union restores the high-level dialogue, suspended since the illegal annexation of the Crimea. “There is a very negative trend regarding human rights in Russia. The media are witnessing intimidation, threats and violence against journalists, bloggers or people expressing opinions that are not in line with the official position”, he stressed, lamenting that there was no EU-Russia platform to discuss the issue. Stano described the attack on blogger Egor Zhukov the day before as “very regrettable”, and hoped that those responsible for the attack would be brought to justice. (CG)