After the opposition leader Alexei Navalny started actively blogging, many people began to follow his life, support him or condemn him. In total, 200-300 thousand people took to the streets in 140 cities. The European Union, which decided to impose sanctions on Russian citizens related to the case of Alexei Navalny, couldn’t remain indifferent. They should concern those, who are responsible for the arrest, prosecution and sentencing of the opposition leader. This was stated by the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrel.
Almost all European Union countries support this idea, but not everyone is worried about the consequences, unlike Austria. On February 21, the Austrian Foreign Ministry, Alexander Schallenberg, in the interview with the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, called on the EU not to cut the branch on which they themselves sit…
“I agree,” commented Grigory Prutskov, Associate Professor of the Department of Foreign Journalism and Literature at the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University, Candidate of Philological Sciences.
“It’s not just about various aspects of economic and political cooperation. Russia pays hundreds of millions of euros annually for participation in various European structures, and Russia’s withdrawal from the EU won‘t only lead to the freezing of cooperation, but also to the loss of this money.
It’s important for the EU to maintain good relations with Russia, since it is obvious that it is impossible not to cooperate with a state that occupies half of Europe and is one of the most important political and economic partners of the EU. The consequences of ignoring Russia can be seen in the consequences of the Peace of Versailles in 1919, when European countries attempted to build new world relations without the participation of our country.
I think there will be no serious consequences for Russia, since all possible sanctions against us have already been imposed since 2014. It’s already impossible to come up with any fundamentally new and even more harmful sanctions for our country.”
And here is what the Director of the Vladimir Mezentsev School of Journalism at the Central House of Journalists, Georgy Mezentsev thinks about this situation:
“The sanctions show us the imperfection of the system of international law. There is no international code that contains crimes, punishments, and a fair system for evaluating a country’s actions.
All countries are interested in good-neighborliness and mutually beneficial trade. Russia is an important supplier of energy resources to the EU countries. Now it’s difficult to imagine the rejection of the Nord Stream 2 project, and only the most radical politicians talk about the introduction of the gas embargo.
It is difficult for me to assess the position of the Austrian Foreign Ministry, but it is important to have different opinions in the EU structures. I think that their discussion will help to develop an optimal solution.
If the sanctions affect Russian civil servants, Russia will be able to take symmetrical measures against EU officials. Such sanctions may even contribute to political stability in our country”
