Russia’s opposition leader Alexei Navalny is set to discuss EU-Russia relations with Europe’s lawmakers on Friday, during a meeting of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee.
Along with Navalny, MEPs will also hold talks with other prominent opposition figures, including Vladimir Kara-Murza, Chairman of the Boris Nemtsov Foundation and Vice President of the Free Russia Foundation, Vladimir Milov, Former Deputy Minister of Energy of Russia and Ilya Yashin, Head of the Krasnoselsky Municipality.
The 44-year-old Kremlin critic on August 20 fell ill on a flight from Siberia to Moscow, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing in Omsk, where he spent two days in hospital before being evacuated to Germany, where he received treatment for 32 days, including 24 days in intensive care.
While German authorities support there is “unequivocal” evidence he was poisoned, citing tests carried out in labs in Germany, France and Sweden, Moscow said it has yet to see evidence of a crime and refused to open a criminal investigation.
Navalny was discharged in late September from Berlin Charite Hospital, after more than a month of treatment for poisoning with a nerve agent from the Novichok group.
In October, the bloc’s foreign affairs ministers agreed on targeted sanctions on individuals and entities deemed responsible for the poisoning of Navalny and for breach of international norms, “based on their official function, as well as an entity involved in the Novichok programme.”
EU’s restrictive measures include asset freezes and travel bans that could target members of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, and which are set to be implemented before December’s summit.
