A hard-line route with the US after the establishment of the Biden government
Hong Kong crackdown, Chinese coup in Myanmar, voices
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalni is making a’V’ (V) gesture to signify victory in the waiting room of the defendant made of glass while attending a trial on an appeals court held in Moscow’s Babuskinsky District Court on the 20th. Moscow=EPA Yonhap News
The European Union’s newly created’American Human Rights Act’ is applied for the first time in Russia, where opposition leader Alexei Navalni was captured and imprisoned. It plans to impose sanctions on financial and travel against senior officials.
According to a foreign press on the 22nd (local time), foreign ministers of 27 EU member states met in Brussels, Belgium, and agreed to sanction four senior Russian officials in response to the Russian government’s detention of Navalni. Official approval is expected to take place early next month. Reuters appointed the chairman of the Russian Federation’s Investigation Committee, Alexander Bastrikin, the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, Igor Krasnov, the chief of the National Guard, and the head of the Federal Correctional Service of Alexander Kalashnikov. They are subject to property freeze and entry bans.
Josef Borrell, senior head of foreign policy for EU foreign policy, said that “people responsible for his (Navalni) arrest, sentence, and persecution” are subject to sanctions, and the newly introduced human rights sanction system will be applied. Said it would.
When sanctions are reached, the EU’s new framework for human rights sanctions is used for the first time, which is similar to the US’ Magnitsky Human Rights Liability Act. The Magnitsky Law, introduced in 2012, is named after Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who was arrested and killed in prison in 2009 after exposing corruption of the Russian powers. Sanctions are imposed on individuals or organizations involved in human rights violations, such as freezing assets or restricting visa issuance. Following the UK and Canada, the EU made similar laws and entered into force in December last year.
Josef Borrell, senior representative of foreign policy in the European Union (EU), is holding a press conference after the meeting of foreign ministers of member states held in Brussels, Belgium on the 22nd. Brussels = AP Yonhap News
Russia immediately rebelled. In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed displeasure, saying, “The decision of EU foreign ministers to impose illegal sanctions on Russian citizens for absurd reasons is disappointing.” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most static Navalni collapsed on board an aircraft in August of last year showing signs of poisoning poisoning and returned to Russia last month after being treated in Germany.
The EU maintains a strong human rights stance in China as well. The Wall Street Journal of Japan (WSJ) said that the EU foreign ministers also agreed to come up with countermeasures against China’s tightening control over Hong Kong. According to the newspaper, the measures include increased contact with Hong Kong democratic activists and the dispatch of the EU Special Representative for Human Rights to Hong Kong. Although it is not yet in the stage of imposing sanctions against Hong Kong and Chinese officials like the US, the EU explained that the probability is sufficient.
WSJ analyzed that “although the EU is advocating an independent foreign policy, there is a tendency to align with the US’s hard line on issues of Russia and China after the launch of the Joe Biden administration.”
Kwon Kyung-seong reporter [email protected]
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