Lithuania Calls for EU Sanctions on Russia after Navalny Arrest

Vilnius, Jan 17 (AFP/APP): Lithuania’s foreign minister on Sunday called for EU sanctions against Russia following the arrest of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in Moscow shortly after he landed on a flight from Berlin.

The Baltic EU state’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said Navalny’s arrest was “totally unacceptable” and those involved should be targeted by sanctions.

“The detention of the opposition leader and poisoning survivor Alexei Navalny is totally unacceptable. The EU should discuss further sanctions on those involved,” Landsbergis told AFP.

Russia’s prison service, the FSIN, said in a statement that it had detained Navalny for “multiple violations” of a 2014 suspended sentence for fraud charges, adding that “he will be held in custody” until a court ruling. Navalny, 44, had been recovering in Germany from a poisoning in August that he blames on Russian authorities.

President Vladimir Putin’s most well-known opponent was returning to Russia for the first time since the poisoning, in defiance of warnings from officials that they would arrest him.

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