EU Foreign Ministers May Discuss New Anti-Russian Sanctions on February 22, Borrell Says

Borrell visited Moscow from January 4 to 6. During the visit, the EU top diplomat had a wide-ranging discussion on the EU-Russia relations and the global geopolitical landscape with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. He also met with representatives of Russian civil society organizations.

"We will discuss these issues with my fellow EU foreign ministers. As ever, it will be for member states to decide the next steps, and yes, these could include sanctions," Borrell said in his blog.

Borrell recalled that in December, the Council of the EU adopted a global human rights sanctions regime that would allow the EU to impose sanctions on individuals, entities, and bodies engaged in human rights violations worldwide.

On February 5, Borrell said at a joint press conference with Lavrov that there had been no proposals on new sanctions against Russian from EU member states so far.

A number of EU politicians have previously said that the bloc would consider again the issue of imposing sanctions against Russia over the situation with Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny, who was sentenced by a court in Moscow to a 3.5-year prison term in a financial misdemeanor case.