The European Union will impose sanctions on Russian prison and civil servants, as well as penal colonies due to the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in prison, writes the American portal “Bloomberg”, which had access to the draft proposal.
Restrictive measures will include 35 people, among them several prison and civil servants, judges, and the penal colonies “Ik-3” and “Ik-6”.
During the past month, the EU introduced the 13th package of sanctions to Russia.
The Russian Correctional Service announced on February 16 that Navalny had died in prison.
The director of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, Sergei Naryshkin, said earlier this month that the opposition leader had died of natural causes.
In January 2021, Navalny was arrested in Moscow upon his arrival from Germany, where he was being treated for alleged poisoning in Russia. Then, in February of that year, a court revoked his probation in the 2014 Yves Roche fraud case because of multiple probation violations and sentenced him to two and a half years in prison.
In August last year, Navalny was additionally sentenced to 19 years in prison on extremism charges. At the time, forty-seven-year-old Navalny had already served several sentences for fraud, embezzlement, contempt of court and probation violation.
He pleaded not guilty to any of the charges.
