BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th February, 2021) The EU Permanent Representatives Committee (COREPER) will hold a meeting on March 1, during which it is expected to approve a new list of sanctions against Russia in response to the arrest of opposition figure Alexey Navalny, according to the meeting's agenda, published on Friday.
Previously, media reported that new targets could include the chairman of Russia's investigative committee, the head of the National Guard, the Russian prosecutor general and the head of the Federal penitentiary service.
"Council Decision and Implementing Regulation concerning restrictive measures against serious human rights violations and abuses," the agenda reads.
As an official EU spokesman told Sputnik that the work on the list will continue until the very last moment and it is impossible to talk about any details.
Last month, Navalny returned to Moscow from Germany, where he was treated for alleged poisoning, and was arrested upon arrival in Sheremetyevo International Airport. Shortly after, the Simonovsky Court in Moscow rescinded Navalny's suspended sentence in the 2014 Yves Rocher fraud case over multiple probation breaches and replaced it with a 3.5-year prison term.
In February, Josep Borrell, the European Union's foreign policy chief, who visited Moscow last week, said that the bloc may impose further sanctions against Russia. On February 22, the bloc agreed to expand sanctions against Moscow over the Navalny case during the meeting of EU foreign ministers.
