GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER NIXES TOUGHER SANCTIONS VS RUSSIA

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has rejected tougher sanctions against Russia in response to its treatment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who's being held in a prison camp, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) reported.

He told broadcaster ARD on Sunday that he had doubts as to whether such measures would actually improve the Kremlin critic's situation. "I think the opposite would be

The European Union has for months called on Russia to release Navalny, who was sentenced to imprisonment at the penal camp in early February for violating parole requirements related to an earlier sentence.

He could not meet the terms of the parole because he was in Germany recovering from a poisoning attack that nearly killed him. Maas pointed out that the EU had already very clearly used such tools against Russia to make a point about its action twice - after Navalny was poisoned, and after his arrest upon returning to Russia.

The EU sanctions against Russia over the annexation of the Crimean peninsula and the conflict in eastern Ukraine would remain in place as long as there was no solution there, the German minister said. "But it's not in our interest to join in this confrontational clamor. We want dialogue, and to be a good neighbor with Russia."

Maas added that the poor shape of German-Russian ties, as well as Moscow's relations with Brussels, was the reason for dialogue. They should not stay in that state, he stressed, "and to change that, you have to talk to each other."

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