The European Union and the Council of the EU denounced, on Tuesday 2 and Wednesday 3 February, the sentencing of Russian critic Alexei Navalny to 2 years and 8 months in prison for the alleged violation of his probation while he was in Germany being treated for poisoning by a military chemical agent.
“The European Union condemns the Russian authorities’ decision to sentence Mr Navalny and considers it unacceptable, as it is politically motivated and runs counter to Russia’s international human rights obligations”, says the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, in a statement on behalf of the EU.
The High Representative recalls that the EU has consistently called on the Russian authorities to comply with their national and international obligations to respect and ensure human rights and equality before the law, including the right to a fair trial. “The EU reiterates its call for the immediate and unconditional release of Mr Navalny, as well as all those citizens and journalists who have been detained for exercising their rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression”, he added.
On Twitter, Mr Borrell said he would raise the subject during his visit to Moscow, which begins this Thursday 4 February.
The EU will also return to this issue at the next Foreign Affairs Council—scheduled for 22 February—and will “discuss its implications and possible further action”, he added in his statement.
While the statement does not clearly mention additional sanctions, due to opposition from some Member States, the German government warned that new measures had “not been ruled out”.
Many MEPs have also called for EU sanctions in response to the verdict. Their demands include targeted measures against those responsible for Mr Navalny’s arrest in January and subsequent verdict, as well as the shutdown of the Nord Stream 2 gas project. Michael Gahler (EPP, Germany) said the EU should go even further and “seriously” reassess its strategy towards Russia.
For Ms Mijatović, the verdict defies all credibility
The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights reacted the day before to the sentencing of the Russian opponent. The judgment ordering his imprisonment “defies all credibility and contravenes Russia’s international human rights obligations”, said Dunja Mijatović, recalling that “the criminal conviction that has served as a basis for today’s custodial sentence had already been considered arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable by the European Court of Human Rights”.
This refers to the judgment handed down in 2017, which condemned the decisions of the Russian courts in the so-called “Yves Rocher” case. It was followed by two other judgments: one in 2018, condemning Russia for multiple ‘political arrests’ against Mr Navalny, who had become a ‘targeted critic’, and another in 2019, denouncing his house arrest.
Currently, the Court has 23 pending applications concerning him: 14 are awaiting a judicial decision and 9 have been the subject of a communication to the parties, the first step towards a possible admissibility decision. The last one was on Monday 1 February and concerns the poisoning that took place last August.
The 2 February judgment also prompted a reaction from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, where the two rapporteurs on political prisoners in the Russian Federation said it was “perfectly obvious that the Russian authorities have political motives for persecuting Mr Navalny”. One of these rapporteurs, the Frenchman Jacques Maire, is also in charge of a report on the poisoning of the critic, as well as another on his arrest in Moscow on 17 January. The drafting of this report was decided last week during a current affairs debate in plenary. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant and Véronique Leblanc)