Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielyus Landsbergis said that after the verdict of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the EU will immediately impose sanctions against those responsible for his persecution.
LRT TV and Radio Company reported about it.
Gabrielyus Landsbergis does not exclude the possibility that, if the discussions in the EU take time, Lithuania may apply sanctions to the people who initiated the arrest and imprisonment of the Russian opposition.
“I have to admit that this court decision did not come as a surprise. At the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels last week, we said that there is a high probability that Vladimir Putin will do his best to keep Navalny in prison. If a real conclusion is assigned to Navalny, Europe will impose sanctions, “Landsbergis said.
“I hope this promise was realistic, so we must return to this issue immediately, without waiting for the new EU Council,” the minister added.
According to Landsbergis, he had already discussed this issue with the foreign ministers of Latvia and Estonia on Tuesday.
On February 3, the Simonovsky Court of Moscow canceled Alex Navalny’s suspended sentence in the “Yves Rocher case” and appointed him a real term of 3.5 years in a general regime penal colony.
At the same time, more than 10 months were taken from the term, which the politician spent under house arrest. This means that Navalny has to spend about 2 years and 8 months in the colony.
