The Foreign Ministers of the Member States of the European Union gave their political agreement on Monday 22 February for sanctions to be adopted in response to the treatment of Russian political opponent Alexei Navalny.
“Ministers have reached a political agreement to impose restrictive measures against those responsible for the arrest, conviction and persecution of Alexei Navalny”, announced the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, at the end of the EU Council, adding that for the first time ever the EU would use its global human rights regime.
The High Representative announced that the adoption procedure would be launched immediately, hoping for an adoption, via a written procedure, in less than a week.
According to a European source, the High Representative’s proposal covers four names. According to a diplomat quoted by Reuters, they are the head of the Russian investigative committee, Alexander Bastrykin; the director of the Federal Prison Service, Alexander Kalashnikov; the director of the National Guard, Viktor Zolotov; and the prosecutor general, Igor Krasnov.
No oligarch is expected to be punished, despite the demands of people close to Mr Navalny. “The people who are going to be sanctioned must have directly participated in what we want to penalise. You can’t punish people because you don’t like them”, explained Mr Borrell.
Earlier in the day and after a meeting the day before with European delegations, Mr Navalny’s political director Leonid Volkov had pleaded for measures against the oligarchs at a meeting with journalists in Brussels. “If it’s only 10 Kremlin officials who don’t travel abroad and don’t have property abroad, then it wouldn’t be painful”, he warned.
According to this confidant of Mr Navalny, the oligarchs are part of the regime. “Those people who directly engage in repression could not exist without the support of the oligarchs and, conversely, the oligarchs would not exist if the repressive machine (...) did not allow them to be billionaires, because there is no independent court, no free elections, and so forth”, he explained. The chief of staff also called on the EU to go further and tackle Russian corruption money spent in Europe.
Support for civil society
The Ministers of the EU27 also discussed what they could bring to civil society. “We have decided to give more support to all those engaged in Russia in the defence of civil and political liberties”, the High Representative announced, without giving further details.
However, Mr Volkov warned against financial assistance to Russian civil society. “We don’t need it, it would put us in danger”, he explained, as it is possible to be sentenced to prison for receiving funds from abroad for political activities. Moreover, according to Mr Volkov, Russian civil society has never been stronger.
“We don’t need funds, we need political support, we need the EU to talk to Putin, but not to build bridges or negotiate, because that doesn’t help”, he explained. “Building bridges and continuing dialogue does not help, Putin sees it as a sign of weakness”, Mr Volkov said.
EU steps up its game
However, Europeans are not ready to burn bridges with Russia. But they will harden their tone towards Moscow. “We must find a modus vivendi to avoid a constant confrontation with a neighbour who, unfortunately, has decided to act as an adversary”, explained the High Representative. According to him, “there is a shared assessment that Russia is drifting towards an authoritarian state and away from the EU”. Russia’s aggressive actions were a clear signal that it does not want to cooperate with the EU, but “on the contrary, to be confrontational and disengaged”, he added.
Mr Borrell also acknowledged that the attitude he had encountered during his trip to Moscow may have convinced some states reluctant to adopt sanctions to take the step.
The EU has therefore decided to work on three main lines of action: push back, contain and engage, while maintaining its five guiding principles in its relations with Russia.
The Union will therefore step back when Russia breaks international law, contain when Russia tries to increase pressure on the EU, especially in terms of disinformation or cyber attacks, and ultimately engage when it is in the EU’s interest to do so.
“It is necessary to re-establish a dialogue with Russia. There are many issues on which it is important to have a dialogue with Russia: health and climate issues. We want to restart this dialogue, but for the moment the ball is in Moscow’s court”, explained German Minister Heiko Maas at the end of the Council.
European heads of state and government will discuss relations with Russia at their European Council at the end of March. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant with Léa Marchal)