More than 3,000 protesters were arrested around Russia on Saturday in connection with protests in support of the arrested opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

EU foreign ministers are critical of the arrests and during a scheduled meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday next week, Ann Linde will present criticism from both Sweden and EU countries.

- During the bilateral part of the meeting, I will express our collective concern for Navalny and all the others who demonstrated in a peaceful manner, says Ann Linde.

What do you hope to achieve?

- I hope they listen to a united EU and release Navalny and the others who have been captured just because they have expressed their protests in a peaceful way.

No EU sanctions

EU foreign ministers gathered in Brussels on Monday to discuss, among other things, Saturday's arrests in Russia.

But no sanctions have been imposed on Russia in this situation.

Ann Linde's Lithuanian colleague Gabriel Landsbergis is one of the EU's foreign ministers pushing the sanctions line the hardest, and he wants the EU to use the new sanctions system that the Union decided on in December.

"Human rights abuses, whether in Minsk, Moscow or Hong Kong, will not be tolerated," Landsbergis said during a meeting in Brussels.

During the three-hour meeting with Lavrov on Tuesday, Ann Linde, as chair of the OSCE, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, will also discuss the conflicts in Ukraine, Georgia and Transnistria in Moldova.