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Commemoration of Alexei Navalny in front of the Russian embassy in Berlin
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David Gannon/AFP
The European Union (EU) has imposed sanctions on individuals and organizations believed to be responsible for the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. 33 people and two organizations are affected. Their names will be published in the EU Official Journal in the coming days. The foreign ministers of the member states had already agreed on the step at the beginning of the week - it has now been implemented.
Kremlin critic Navalny, who was sentenced to a long prison sentence, died in a prison camp in Siberia in mid-February. The circumstances of his death are still unclear to this day. Authorities say Putin's harshest critic collapsed at the age of 47 while touring the icy prison yard. Attempts at resuscitation were unsuccessful.
Germany and the other 26 EU states accuse Putin and the Russian authorities of being to blame for the politician's death. Navalny's widow, Julija Navalnaya, believes that her husband was murdered in the camp.
Penalties for human rights violations
The new EU punitive measures are to be imposed using a sanctions instrument to punish serious human rights violations. Affected people are no longer allowed to enter the EU and no longer do business with EU citizens. In addition, their EU accounts and other assets must be frozen.
The EU states recently decided on new sanctions against Russia on the second anniversary of the war against Ukraine. The measures targeted 106 individuals and 88 entities responsible for actions that undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine. These included people involved in North Korea's arms sales to Russia, as well as the North Korean defense minister.
There have been far-reaching economic sanctions for a long time, such as import bans on crude oil, coal, steel, gold and luxury goods as well as punitive measures against banks and financial institutions.
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