Can EU maintain Navalny secure as he ‘defies’ Putin?

Russia has already ready two warrants for Navalny’s arrest on bogus costs – parole violation and embezzlement, Ashurkov mentioned.

“If they tried before, there’s nothing to stop them from doing it in the future,” Ashurkov additionally mentioned on the danger to Navalny’s life, after Putin’s spy service, the FSB, poisoned Navalny final 12 months.

The Russian chief needed Navalny to remain in exile, and his return, on a Pobeda Airlines flight from Berlin to Moscow on Sunday, represented “a challenge for Putin and his circle”, Ashurkov mentioned.

“It’s an act of defiance against the risk of arrest or new assassination,” Ashurkov mentioned.

The subsequent elections have been years away, however, in any case, Navalny was going again for ethical quite than political causes, Ashurkov added.

“It’s about principles … It’s about the entire nature of Navalny’s strategy and character. People who know Navalny expected that this would happen,” Ashurkov, who’s government director of Navalny’s Moscow-based Anti-Corruption Foundation, instructed EUobserver.

Navalny’s home-coming will put him again within the highlight after he survived being poisoned on 20 August 2020 with Novichok, a UN-prohibited, military-grade chemical weapon.

And it comes amid deliberations on whether or not EU international affairs chief Josep Borrell may comply with in his tracks by assembly Russian international minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow in early February.

“The HRVP [high-representative for foreign affairs] has been invited by foreign minister Lavrov and has said that he is ready to visit Russia, when appropriate,” Borrell’s spokesman instructed this web site on Wednesday, when requested concerning the potential go to.

“We will closely watch what happens after Mr Navalny’s announced return to Russia on 17 January and expect the Russian authorities to observe their duty to respect and protect his rights,” the EU spokesman additionally mentioned.

Borrell’s journey, if it goes forward, can be the primary of its form since former EU prime diplomat Federica Mogherini met Lavrov in Moscow in 2017.

EU-Russia ties are moribund as a consequence of financial sanctions over Russia’s warfare in Ukraine.

The Navalny case stigmatised Russia much more, together with by new targeted EU sanctions in opposition to Putin’s spy-chief, FSB director Aleksandr Bortnikov.

But EU leaders are eager to revisit Russia relations at an upcoming summit in Brussels on 25 March, in keeping with plans pencilled in on the EU Council in Brussels.

And Borrell was concerned about exploring “selective engagement” with Moscow, in addition to setting out purple strains, his spokesman mentioned.

“The full implementation of the ‘Minsk agreements’ remains a key condition for any substantial change in EU-Russia relations,” Borrell’s spokesman mentioned, referring to a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire-accord.

Navalny’s destiny

“The EU has repeatedly called on Russia to investigate this unacceptable crime [the Novichok attack on Navalny], which we see as a case of proliferation of chemical weapons, contrary to international law,” the EU spokesman additionally mentioned.

And whether or not Borrell’s journey goes forward or not, having the EU “closely watch” what occurs to Navalny “might help” maintain him secure, Ashurkov, Navalny’s affiliate, instructed this web site.

“It [EU attention] couldn’t hurt … but nobody has a crystal ball on the calculations in the Kremlin,” Ashurkov mentioned.

When requested by EUobserver what Borrell must say to Lavrov in the event that they met, Ashurkov, a 48-year outdated former banker, replied: “Borrell has decades of international diplomatic experience. It would be naive for me, a Russian political activist, to advise him. There are so many considerations”.

For its half, Russia denies it’s at warfare in Ukraine or that it poisoned Navalny.

Meanwhile, its EU ambassador, Vladimir Chizhov, has been lobbying for a Borrell-Lavrov assembly, EU diplomatic sources mentioned.

The EU’s ambassador in Russia, Markus Ederer, said, last August, {that a} high-level go to of that sort was not being deliberate as a result of coronavirus scenario.

But Chizhov’s spokesman instructed EUobserver that that was now not an issue.

“Though anti-Covid measures are still in place, I think, from a technical point of view, the general answer is: ‘Yes’. At least, such a conclusion may be drawn from the fact that today the Saudi foreign minister is in Moscow for a working visit,” the Russian spokesman mentioned on Wednesday.

“There is always an opportunity for a rapprochement,” he added.

Borrell’s spokesman famous that final 12 months’s Navalny chemical-weapons assault had had a “negative impact on our relations”.

But when requested how Navalny’s destiny may affect EU-Russia ties in future, Chizhov’s spokesman mentioned: “Sorry, we don’t speculate”.