Three days after the death of opponent Alexeï Navalny, Russia is being targeted from all sides.
United States President Joe Biden said on Monday that he was “considering” additional sanctions against Moscow, while the European Union demanded “accountability” from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We already have sanctions but we are considering additional ones, yes,” Joe Biden explained to journalists.
The American president had already judged President Putin “responsible” for the death of Navalny, announced Friday in an Arctic prison.
“Vladimir Putin and his regime will have to be held accountable for the death of Alexeï Navalny,” declared, for his part, the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell, expressing “the EU's deepest condolences to Yulia Navalnaïa” , the activist's wife.
But, “as Yulia said, Russia is not Putin and Putin is not Russia,” he added.
Sanctions are “the minimum”
Several European ministers also said they were in favor of new sanctions against Russia upon their arrival in Brussels on Monday.
“We will implement new sanctions,” said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
“This is the minimum we can do,” added his Lithuanian counterpart Gabrielius Landsbergis.
Also read “I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny”: Yulia Navalnaïa, the opposition’s legacy
The EU has already sanctioned Russia several times, with 12 packages of measures, and is preparing to adopt a thirteenth on the occasion of the second anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
“Putin is a murderer.
Putin murdered a person who fought for freedom, for democracy, and this is exactly why we must move forward, also in our support for Ukraine, Estonian Foreign Minister said , Margus Tsahkna.
And for several ministers, the best way to weaken the Russian president is to help Ukraine, which will enter its third year on Saturday.
“We need to realize what is at stake today.
If Ukraine is invaded, if Russia manages to expand, it is a dictatorship that will expand and move a little closer to the European Union,” warned Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja. Lahbib.
An opponent dead one month before an election
Alexeï Navalny, number one adversary of President Vladimir Putin, died at the age of 47 in a prison in the Arctic, in the autonomous district of Yamalo-Nenetsia, where he was serving a 19-year sentence for “extremism”.
According to the Russian Prison Service (FSIN), Alexeï Navalny died there on Friday, the victim of a sudden malaise “after a walk”.
He had been imprisoned since his return to Russia in early 2021, after a serious poisoning, and his health had deteriorated.
He had spent nearly 300 days in a disciplinary cell, in exhausting conditions of detention.
The opponent's mother and a lawyer, present on site, were deprived of access to the remains for at least 14 days, according to his team, which accuses the Kremlin of having killed him.
Asked about the subject, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov limited himself to saying on Monday that an investigation was underway and that there were no results “for the moment”.
Vladimir Putin, who never mentioned the name of Alexeï Navalny, has still made no comment on his death, which comes a month before the presidential election, the outcome of which is in no doubt.