EU CALLS FOR SANCTIONS VS RUSSIA OVER NAVALNY ARREST

Several foreign ministers from European Union nations called for sanctions against Russia over the detention of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and his supporters as they met in Brussels.

The opposition leader was arrested on January 18 as he returned to Russia following a five-month convalescence in Germany after a nerve agent attack, Alice Tidey of Euronews reported.

Thousands of protesters across the country were detained after rallying in numerous cities to demand his release at the weekend. At least 3,000 arrests were reported on Saturday in locations spanning from Siberia to Moscow, according to the OVD-info organization that monitors political detentions, as thousands more demonstrated in temperatures as low as -50C.

"I think the EU needs to send a very clear and decisive message that this is not acceptable and we have a very, in my opinion, effective mechanism - the EU global rights sanctions regime," Gabrielius Landsbergis, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Lithuania, told reporters.

"I think it needs to be used decisively in order to send a message that human rights abuses, wherever they happen, in Minsk, in Moscow, in Hong Kong, they will not be tolerated," he added.

His Romanian counterpart, Bogdan Aurescu, said that he "will reiterate Romania's condemnation of the arrest of Mr Navalny, which is unacceptable and I will reiterate our opinion that repression against the opposition just because it is the opposition is unacceptable and is non-democratic."

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