The sanctions list should be well thought out and be free of legal doubts, Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said
Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg expects EU foreign ministers to agree on Monday on new restrictions against Moscow over the situation around Alexei Navalny, which include measures against individuals under the European human rights sanctions mechanism. He said this in an interview with the Welt am Sonntag newspaper published on Sunday.
“At Monday’s meeting of foreign ministers, we will discuss a proportionate response to the Navalny situation,” Schallenberg said. “This includes targeted measures against individuals within the recently established sanctions regime for human rights violations. I expect this to be supported by an overwhelming majority”, – he said.
At the same time, the foreign minister warned against overreacting to what happened to Navalny. “Otherwise, we will saw off the branch on which we are sitting,” he warned. According to Schallenberg, the sanctions list should be well thought out and not legally questionable.
He believes that the EU needs, on the one hand, a dialogue with Moscow and, on the other hand, should clearly state its opposition to certain actions if necessary. “Russia is a reality in our neighbourhood,” the Austrian minister pointed out.
Earlier, a diplomatic source in Brussels, ahead of the February 22 meeting of foreign ministers, informed that several member states had already submitted proposals to the EU Council for anti-Russian sanctions “in connection with human rights violations and the Navalny case”.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in an interview with Vladimir Solovyov on the YouTube channel Solovyov Live, had earlier said that Moscow did not rule out the possibility of severing ties with the EU if Brussels were to impose restrictions that created risks for sensitive sectors of the Russian economy. Russian presidential press secretary Dmitriy Peskov explained that Moscow should be prepared for unfriendly manifestations from Brussels, but would like to develop relations with the EU.