The EPP Group calls the Foreign Affairs Ministers of EU countries to agree on sanctions against all persons involved in the poisoning of the Russian political Alexei Navalny. "Russia clearly failed

in cooperating to start an international investigation into the poisoning of Alexei Navalny. Therefore we urge the EU Member States to sanction those responsible for this crime. All investigators and perpetrators must be held accountable", said MEP Andrius Kubilius, EPP Group Spokesman on Russia. 

 "We urge the Council to launch a thorough and strategic reassessment of the EU’s relations with Russia and the five guiding principles. The EU needs a new strategy which will be conditional on further developments. Since the Russian authorities are not cooperating, a common European reaction is needed, including the end of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline”, Kubilius stressed.

The EPP Group proposed for sanctions consisting of the denial of entry into the EU and freeing the financial assets of all officials linked to the attack against Alexei Navalny. “The case of Mr Navalny is unfortunately not the first and not the last act of violence against political opponents of Mr Putin. It also came and comes in the middle of a widespread crackdown on journalists and dissenting voices in Russia”, added Kubilius.

Katrin Goodman 

Photo by Evgeny Feldman, Wikimedia commons.