Navalny aides press EU leaders to increase Russian sanctions – POLITICO

High aides to Alexei Navalny accused Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday of jailing their boss and different opposition figures to remove competitors in upcoming nationwide elections, they usually urged EU leaders to make use of European Court docket of Human Rights case information to establish investigators, judges and prosecutors who ought to be sanctioned for his or her function in political abuses. 

Navalny and his associates have known as loudly and publicly for the EU to sanction oligarchs near Putin, particularly those that keep a big portion of their wealth in Europe — a requirement that poses a thicket of authorized obstacles. However throughout a cease in Brussels on Monday, two of Navalny’s prime lieutenants, Leonid Volkov and Ivan Zhdanov, advised reporters that they had additionally pressed the EU to punish the Russian officers who help in illicit prosecutions. They usually pointed to the European Court docket of Human Rights as a repository of proof.

In that sense, Volkov and Zhdanov supplied a possible new roadmap for EU overseas ministers, who on Monday agreed to impose new sanctions over Navalny’s imprisonment, however will solely now begin understanding all the particulars.

“Putin goes full steam into his electoral marketing campaign now, like clearing the political subject, evaporating all potential opposition candidates,” Volkov, who’s Navalny’s chief of employees, advised reporters at a briefing Monday. “Our message was that Europe ought to consider the upcoming election on this context — not solely how the votes might be counted.”

Volkov and Zhdanov, the top of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Basis, additionally had pointed phrases for EU leaders, saying it’s naive to assume Putin will cooperate with them, even on a restricted foundation.

“We simply should be logical,” Volkov stated. “When Putin simply laughs in Europe’s face on human rights — on his obligations towards the European Court docket of Human Rights, on his obligations in the direction of just like the Chemical Weapons Conference — how might we logically assume that it could make any sense to barter with him on local weather change, or anti-money laundering or no matter?”

That message was clearly meant partially for leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron, who has repeatedly stated he’s looking for a rapprochement with Putin, and EU overseas coverage chief Josep Borrell, who just lately traveled to Moscow looking for to reopen dialogue solely to finish up embarrassed as Russia expelled three European diplomats throughout his go to.

However Monday’s recommendation on punishing human rights violators was most pertinent, on condition that it got here the identical day EU overseas ministers gave the inexperienced mild to impose new sanctions.

In response to a query, Volkov stated that Navalny’s allies would assist sanctions in opposition to officers from Putin’s political occasion, United Russia, in addition to members of Russia’s Central Election Fee. However he conceded these measures had been unlikely and stated specializing in officers named in European Court docket of Human Rights selections might make extra sense.

“Europe has really constructed an enormous database of human rights violators that simply must be utilized, and that is the database of the present verdicts of the European Court docket of Human Rights,” Volkov stated. “There are millions of violations and they’re all documented. So each time we get arrested for participation in a rally, we attraction to the European Court docket of Human Rights.”

He added: “This may assist Russian civil society very a lot, really, when the following time the decide would take into consideration arresting a few of our colleagues for one more 15 days for collaborating in a rally — that this might shut him and her method to their trip in France or in Italy.”

The 2 opposition figures stated Borrell’s current journey to Moscow confirmed that it was foolish for the EU to attempt to develop a dialogue with Putin or Russian Overseas Minister Sergey Lavrov.

“Lavrov, Putin have thought-about Borrell’s go to as an indication of weak point,” Volkov stated, “and acted upon it.”