| Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (left) and the European Union’s senior representative for foreign and security policy, Joseph Borrell, meet in Moscow, Russia on February 5, 2021. © Reuters = News1 © News1 Reporter Seoyoon Choi |
Joseph Borrell, a senior European Union foreign and security policy representative, on a visit to Russia announced on the 5th that he met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and urged the release of Alexei Navalni.
According to Reuters, at a press conference held after the meeting with Minister Labrov that day, Mr. Borrell expressed his deep concern about the imprisonment of Navalni and urged him to release him. “He said.
However, there are currently no EU-level sanctions on this case. “There will be discussions at the EU summit and foreign ministers’ meetings in March,” said Borrell.
In this regard, Lavrov said, “the sanctions are only an internal EU issue,” and “I know that the EU is increasingly acting like the United States and imposing unilateral sanctions on each country.” He set the day saying, “The EU is an unreliable partner.”
Meanwhile, President Borrell and Minister Ravrov agreed on cooperation on the production and approval of vaccines for Sputnik V in Russia. When Minister Labrov said he would like EU member states to approve the vaccine, Borrell responded with the intention of welcoming the vaccine shortage.
This is the first high-level EU visit to Russia since 2017, and the two sides are expected to have discussed the resumption of the Iran Nuclear Agreement (JCPOA) and overall bilateral relations, including response to climate change.
“The EU leaders will have important discussions on relations with Russia in March,” said Borrell, and “this visit was made in preparation for that.”
EU-Russian relations have been deteriorating since 2014, when Russia occupied the Crimean peninsula and caused the Ukrainian War. However, there are also observations that the EU was in a difficult situation as the Navalni incident worsened amid the recent progress in economic relations, such as the gas pipe connection project that brings Russian natural gas to Europe.
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