New EU sanctions against Russia will be named after Navalny

According to Josep Borrell, a "human rights" package of sanctions has been developed in the EU since the end of last year, and the situation with the poisoning of Alexey Navalny only intensified work on it. The opposition politician himself, who became ill on August 20 on board a plane flying from Tomsk to Moscow, has been undergoing treatment at the Berlin Charite clinic since August 22. Today, for the first time in almost a month, he published a photo from a hospital ward, noting that only the first day he could breathe on his own. The German authorities stated that the politician had been poisoned with a chemical warfare agent from the Novichok group. French experts came to the same opinion.

Josep Borrell believes that the regime of sanctions for violations of human rights should be named after Alexey Navalny, by analogy with US sanctions for violations of human rights - the "Magnitsky List", named in memory of the 37-year-old Russian auditor Sergey Magnitsky, who died in prison, who uncovered large-scale thefts.

“What happened to Mr. Navalny, it seems to me, should prompt the EU member states to put an end to their discussions, start acting and approve this regime of sanctions for violation of human rights, which, like the Magnitsky Act in the United States, could be called the regime of sanctions named after Navalny", - quotes the words of Josep Borrel, the Interfax news agency.

EU spokesman for foreign and security policy Peter Stano said on September 3 that the EU "reserves the right to take appropriate measures, including through restrictive measures" after what happened to Alexey Navalny, the Dozhd TV channel said. According to the American newspaper The New York Times, the possible introduction of sanctions against Russia is already being discussed in Germany, but it is assumed that they should not lead to dragging out negotiations on resolving the situation in Ukraine and Syria.