Russia has promised to respond to EU sanctions due to the situation around Alexei Navalny (founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), included by the Ministry of Justice in the register of organizations performing the functions of a foreign agent) . This was stated by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko, RIA Novosti reports.
Sanctions, in his opinion, are “illegal and dead-end way” of interaction with the Russian Federation. He stressed that there will be a reaction, but did not specify which one.
Earlier on Monday, March 1, the ambassadors of the 27 EU member states agreed on sanctions over the Navalny case: those associated with his conviction will be subject to them.
On February 22, the Council of the European Union decided to impose sanctions against Russian citizens related to the conviction of Navalny. After that, the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said that Brussels would prepare new sanctions against the Russian Federation within a week.
On February 2, the Simonovsky Court of Moscow replaced Navalny's suspended sentence with a real one for violating the conditions for observing the probationary period in the Yves Rocher case. He will stay in the colony for 2 years and 8 months, taking into account the year spent under house arrest during the preliminary investigation.
The European Court of Human Rights has demanded that the Russian government release Alexei Navalny from prison as an interim measure.
The Russian Foreign Ministry called the ECHR ruling an attempt to put pressure on Russia.
