On Monday, European Union foreign ministers agreed on sanctions targeting Russian officials involved in the crackdown on Russian opposition Alexei Navalny and his supporters, while Moscow responded by expressing its disappointment with the move.
European foreign ministers reached the agreement during a meeting in Brussels that also saw the announcement of sanctions targeting Venezuelan officials, and other measures to be imposed against the leaders of the military coup in Myanmar.
Diplomats in Brussels said that a "political agreement" had been reached to use the new human rights penal system for the first time in order to punish four senior Russian officials involved in Navalny prison and to oppress his supporters by arresting thousands of them during the recent protests in Russia following the arrest of Navalny. Upon his return from Germany, where he underwent treatment for months, following his poisoning last summer with "Novochik" gas produced in the former Soviet Union.
These diplomats did not reveal the identities of the Russian officials involved in sanctions that include freezing their assets and banning their travel to European Union countries, but they stated that the sanctions would not include any of the wealthy and influential close to power in Moscow.
And EU foreign relations official Josep Borrell will have to formally draw up a list of Russian officials who will be sanctioned in the coming days, according to a senior Russian diplomat.
Russian response
In return, the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed its disappointment about the European Union’s decision to impose sanctions on four senior Russian officials.
It said in a statement that this decision was taken "under a flimsy pretext to prepare for the imposition of new unilateral and illegal restrictions against Russian citizens."
Moscow had earlier threatened to cut ties with the European Union if sanctions were imposed that threaten its economy.
Borrell's visit to Moscow earlier this month was supposed to help improve European-Russian relations, but Moscow's expulsion of European diamond rings sparked new tensions between the two sides.
Amid these tensions, European leaders called for sanctions against Russia.
During the meeting of European ministers in Brussels, Borrell said there was a feeling within the EU that Russia was heading towards authoritarianism, and moving away from Europe.
And last October, the European Union blacklisted six Russian officials for poisoning Navalny with nerve gas.
The European Union previously imposed sanctions on Russia after it annexed Crimea in 2014 and because of its role in fueling the conflict in Ukraine.
On the other hand, the Swedish prosecutor said Monday that he has charged a 47-year-old Swedish man suspected of providing information to a Russian diplomat.
The Swedish Security Agency said that the man was arrested while meeting with a person working for Russian intelligence under the guise of being a diplomat, in a Stockholm restaurant in February 2019.