A specific list of names should be prepared by EU diplomacy in the coming days, and states could finally approve it later this week. Berlin and Paris came up with a proposal which, according to diplomats, provided for the punishment of people associated with Russian military intelligence GRU, among other things.
Ministers did not discuss specific names. However, they agreed to extend the current list of anti-Russian sanctions, which includes the freezing of assets in EU banks and a ban on travel within the European bloc.
“There is a political consensus on extending this sanctions list. The Czech Republic supports the EU to react through sanctions against persons who may have been connected with Alexei Navalný’s poisoning, “Petříček said after the meeting.
A report by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) last week confirmed that a new and as yet unreported variant of the nerve paralytic substance novice had been found in Naval Blood. Moscow says it has nothing to do with the poisoning, but has not yet responded to the EU’s calls for cooperation in the investigation.
This time, EU diplomacy reacted to the use of the novelty much faster than in the previous year’s attack on the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, Britain, which some countries also attributed to people associated with the GRU. Whereas at that time the EU agreed to impose sanctions on the three leading intelligence officers, including its chief, ten months after the attack, it has now reached an agreement in two months.
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The heads of diplomacy have admitted sanctions against Lukashenko
The ministers also agreed that the EU states are ready to expand the sanctions list of Belarusian officials and include the authoritarian ruler Alexander Lukashenko if the situation in the country does not improve.
The states of the Union, which Lukashenko does not recognize as president due to the rigged elections, have once again called on Minsk to end the violence against peaceful opposition demonstrations and call for democratic elections. If this does not happen in the near future, according to the conclusions of the ministerial meeting, Lukashenko’s name should be added to the list of 40 officials, among others.
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