EU launches “Navalny package”: stop exporting anything that can serve repression in Russia

Brussels – Never again another Alexsey Navalny. The European Union launches a new special sanctions package against Moscow, aimed at stopping Vladimir Putin’s Russia’s repression machine. The death of one of the Russian leader’s main political opponents is the impetus for the EU Council to adopt an announced package. It triggers a ban on anything that can be used for repression, torture, or violation of the rule of law and, therefore, cannot be sold to the Russian Federation. This is a ban on exports of goods, as well as computer programs and devices such as radio equipment and monitors.

The green light granted today (May 27) also includes the EU blacklisting of the Federal Prison Service of the Russian Federation (FSIN). This is the central authority that runs the Russian prison system, “notorious for its widespread and systematic abuse and mistreatment of political prisoners in Russia,” criticizes the EU Council. As a federal agency, FSIN is responsible for the penal colonies—already listed among entities subject to sanctions—in which Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny was held on politically motivated charges and eventually died on February 16, 2024. 

The decisions taken in Brussels are a must, explains the EU’s High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, Josep Borrell. Navalny’s death, he stresses, “was another sign of the acceleration and systematic repression by the Kremlin regime.” As European Union, he promises, “we will spare no efforts to hold the Russian political leadership and authorities to account” for the death of the political opponent and respect for human rights in the country, “including through this new sanctions regime, targeting those limiting the respect for and violate human rights in Russia.”

For this reason, the European Union also strikes all those judges held responsible or co-responsible for Navalny’s death in prison. For them, it will not be possible to set foot on EU soil, and for all of them, individuals and national prison authorities alike, freezing any assets held in one of the twenty-seven member states will be triggered.