International sanctions during the Ukrainian crisis

• While urging the Chinese authorities to repeal the draconian national security law introduced last year, MEPs encourage EU countries to impose sanctions against individuals and entities responsible for serious violations of human rights and international law in Hong Kong under the EU human rights sanctions regime.
• While urging the countrys authorities to genuinely abolish the death penalty for these offenders, the resolution strongly supports EU sanctions against Saudi officials responsible for grave human rights violations.
• All EU exports of mass surveillance technology and other dual-use items to Saudi Arabia should be suspended, say MEPs.
• The resolution also calls on Iran to stop threatening Dr Djalalis family in both Sweden and Iran.

• Restrictive measures were initially adopted in 2011 and aimed notably at assisting the Egyptian authorities with the recovery of misappropriated state assets.
• The measures consisted of an asset freeze imposed on the assets of the listed individuals located in the EU.
• In addition, nationals from EU member states and legal entities incorporated in the EU were forbidden from making funds available to those listed, either directly or indirectly.
• Since 2011, sanctions have been reviewed on an annual basis, with some individuals having been delisted over time.

EU-Russia relations have become increasingly strained over the past decade, not least because of the country's 2014 annexation of Crimea. The Kremlin’s support for separatists in eastern Ukraine and Russia’s military intervention in Syria have only exacerbated matters. Another source of tension is Russia’s disinformation campaigns and cyber-attacks, as well as attempts to interfere in Western democratic processes.

Arrest of Alexei Navalny

• Having recovered from a near-fatal poisoning last year, opposition leader Navalny was detained on his return to Russia on 17 January.
• Speaking during a Facebook live interview on 27 January 2021, Urmas Paet, the vice-chair of Parliaments foreign affairs committee, called for sanctions against those who have direct responsibility for the arrest and harassment of Alexei Navalny.
• In a resolution adopted four days following the arrest, Parliament called for significantly tighter EU sanctions against Russia, as well as for the immediate and unconditional release of Navalny and of all those detained in relation to his return to Moscow.

EU sanctions against Russia

• Since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, EU economic sanctions target Russias financial, defence and energy sectors.
• Before Christmas, EU leaders unanimously decided to extend the sanctions until 31 July 2021.
• The measures, which are renewed twice a year, have hit Russia hard: by late 2018, its economy was thought to be 6% smaller due to EU and US sanctions.
• The EU also imposed sanctions on Russian officials in response to Navalny's poisoning.

Echoes of Belarus

• Speaking in the same interview, Andrius Kubilius, one of Parliament's lead MEPs on Russia, described sanctions as an effective tool.
• Kubilius said that tens of thousands of Russians had braved beatings, arrests and temperatures of -50 to protest the arrest of Navalny.
• He also spoke of the echoes of Belarus in recent developments inside Russia: Lukashenko tried to steal the Belarusian presidential election and it is very clear that the Kremlin regime is trying to steal the Duma elections.
• That is why we are condemning the Kremlins autocratic behaviour.

Nord Stream 2

• Controversy over the new Nord Stream 2 pipeline has highlighted the countrys leverage as the Unions main energy supplier.
• In the 21 January resolution, MEPs called on the EU to immediately stop work on the controversial pipeline, which would link Germany directly to Russia.
• Paet expressed his hope that EU ministers would take Parliaments position seriously and said that the Nord Stream 2 project violates the EUs common energy security policy.

No longer a "strategic partner"

• In March 2019, a European Parliament resolution stated that Russia could no longer be considered a strategic partner.
• However, despite the tensions, there are many areas where both the EU and Russia have common interests and concerns.
• The EU is still by far Moscow's biggest trade and investment partner (accounting for 42% of Russian exports in 2019).

• Then the Italian data protectionauthority with 35 fines, and the Romanian authority (ANSPDCP) with 26 sanctions.
• There is a different perspective if we consider the economic value of the sanctions instead of their number.
• These are only some of the different figures that are itemized in the Federprivacy report.
• Telecommunications has been the second in this list with 62,400,000, and business the third with 38,100,000.