The Russian doctor who treated Alexey Navalny after Novichok poisoning last summer at the hospital in Omsk died suddenly at the age of 55. This was announced by the hospital itself with a statement reported by CNN, without disclosing the causes of death.
EU High Representative Josep Borrell flew to Moscow for a delicate three-day visit: a diplomatic summit that falls at a time when the detention of Putin’s number one opponent, Alexey Navalny, and the crackdown on protests in support of the opponents are making relations between Russia and the European Union increasingly tense and could lead to new sanctions against the Kremlin. It will inevitably be the Navalny case that will dominate tomorrow’s talks between Russian Foreign Minister Serghiei Lavrov and Borrell, who, even before leaving, wanted to reaffirm Brussels’ position on the matter: the two-year and eight-month prison sentence imposed on Tuesday Navalny is “politically motivated”, declared the High Representative, adding that Russia and the EU are now seeing each other ”
Shortly after, it was the spokesman of the European External Action Service Peter Stano who echoed him on the Navalny case, stressing that in the Moscow negotiations the EU would ask for the immediate release of the dissident and of all the people who ended up in cells for having protested against his incarceration. It will be difficult talks. Russia has so far responded to Western criticisms of the Navalny case by branding it as “interference” and urging Brussels to “not commit the foolishness” of linking “the prospects of Russia-EU relations to this detainee’s case”. Moscow would like to “unblock” dialogue with the EU “in order to openly discuss all existing differences,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitri Peskov said today. But on the thorny Navalny question, the Kremlin does not seem to want to take a step sideways, to the point that Peskov has gone so far as to declare that it is not correct to speak of “repressions” due to the wave of stops at demonstrations in support of the opponent. “There are no repressions, there are only measures taken by the police against those who violate the law, against those who participate in unauthorized marches,” he said.
The Russian police have struck with batons on several occasions and are accused of excessive use of force against peaceful demonstrators, but for the Kremlin this is “within the scope of legality” and whether the cells of the administrative detention centers are now overcrowded blame – according to Peskov – and of the demonstrators who participated in unauthorized protests. Navalny will be back in court tomorrow for yet another defendant trial, this time the charge of defaming a WWII veteran. Other charges hang on the dissident’s head, who in the evening returned to make himself heard urging people to “overcome fear” and “free the homeland” from “usurping thieves”. Yet there and who thinks that Putin does not move an inch from his will to stifle dissent and that even Borrell will find himself facing a wall. The option of sanctions remains on the table. EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss “possible further action” against Moscow on February 22. Berlin does not seem to want to sacrifice the Russian-German Nord Stream-2 pipeline while Navalny himself hopes for sanctions against the oligarchs close to Putin.

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