High noon for EU diplomats in Moscow on Sunday

“A diplomat’s function pursuant to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations is to observe developments in the host country by lawful means,” a German foreign ministry official told EUobserver on Friday.

“Regardless of pressure from Russian authorities, Polish diplomats will continue to perform their official duties in the Russian Federation,” the Polish foreign ministry said.

“Observing demonstrations and monitoring political developments in their host country is a natural part of a diplomat’s core duties,” the Swedish foreign ministry said.

The EU countries spoke out after Russia expelled three of their diplomats, last weekend, for going to “unlawful” protests on 23 January.

Russian dissident Alexei Navalny’s supporters are holding fresh rallies to free him on ‘Valentine’s Day’.

The US and Norway backed the EU in going despite the recent expulsions.

It was “standard practice” for Western diplomats to observe foreign protests, a state department spokesperson told EUobserver on Thursday.

“We express solidarity with Germany, Poland, and Sweden and condemn the harassment and expulsion of the three European diplomats from Russia,” she said.

“This arbitrary and unjustified act is Russia’s latest departure from its international obligations,” the state department added.

Norway was bolder.

“Norwegian diplomats in Russia will continue to observe public events as a means of reporting on domestic political developments in the same way as they have done before,” Norwegian state secretary State Secretary Audun Halvorsen told this website.

Austria and Finland also voiced the EU line.

“Austria has called for the immediate release of Alexej Navalny and for respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, such as freedom of assembly,” Austria’s foreign ministry said.

“Finnish diplomats act, as always, according to the Vienna Convention,” Helsinki said.

Paris declined to comment.

And some EU states showed little interest.

“I’m in no position to know what our diplomats [in Moscow] will be doing this weekend, or any weekend for that matter, as it’s beyond office hours … I’m in no position to speak on behalf of the EU,” a Greek diplomat said.

But for its part, Russia indicated more EU expulsions could not be ruled out.

“If our [European] colleagues accredited in Russia have not learned their lesson, let them blame themselves,” a spokesman for Russia’s EU ambassador, Vladimir Chizhov, said.

The EU foreign service told this website: “As made clear in the HRVP’s [recent] statement on the expulsion of the three European diplomats by the Russian authorities, observation of protests is compatible with the Vienna Convention.”

The EU high representative (HVRP) on foreign affairs, Josep Borrell, is currently drafting new EU sanctions on Russia over its jailing of Navalny.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has warned him against going too far.

“We don’t want to isolate ourselves from world affairs, but we have to be prepared for that,” Lavrov said on Russian YouTube channel Solovyov Live on Thursday.

“If you want peace, prepare for war,” Lavrov added.

But Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, was less aggressive on Friday.

“Media outlets are giving this headline … out of context,” Peskov told Russian news agency Interfax.

“What’s actually meant is we don’t want it [sanctions] … we want to develop relations with the European Union”, he said.

The mixed message was because Russia had “painted itself into a corner” with last weekend’s EU diplomatic expulsions, an EU source said

“They’re panicking a bit and making mistakes,” the source said, given Russia’s need for EU gas money.

But if Moscow was unsure how to handle the Valentine Day stand-off, then so was Europe .

For all of Germany and Sweden’s brave talk, just the Baltic states and the EU embassy in Moscow sent diplomats to observe Navalny’s court hearing in Moscow on Friday, an EU source said.

It remains to be seen who will send diplomats out on Sunday.

Those kinds of decision were usually made by EU countries’ ambassadors in Moscow, coordinating at local level.

But in a sign of the heightened tension, several EU states’ embassies in the Russian capital, when asked by EUobserver, referred questions back to national capitals.

Borrell’s moment

Meanwhile, it also remains to be seen what kind of sanctions Borrell might propose.

Navalny has urged him to impose asset-freezes on pro-Kremlin oligarchs.

Zhanna Nemtsova, the daughter of murdered Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, has done the same.

Borrell is expected to propose listing minor Russian officials instead, amid French and German efforts to dial down tension with Russia.

And given the EU’s low ambition, the least Borrell could do was send somebody to see what Russia’s riot squads do to Russian people this weekend, the Russian opposition said.

“Freedom of peaceful assembly is one of the fundamental rights guaranteed within the OSCE,” Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza told EUobserver on Friday, referring to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, an intergovernmental body in Vienna.

Kara-Murza, like Navalny, narrowly survived being poisoned by the Russian regime.

“[OSCE] member-states have not only a right but an obligation to observe its implementation in practice,” he said.