MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION on the arrest of Aleksei Navalny

B9‑0094/2021

European Parliament resolution on the arrest of Aleksei Navalny

(2021/2513(RSP))

The European Parliament,

– having regard to its previous resolutions on Russia, in particular those of 15 January 2015 on Russia, in particular the case of Alexei Navalny[1], of 12 March 2015 on the murder of the Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov and the state of democracy in Russia[2], of 6 April 2017 on Russia, the arrest of Alexei Navalny and other protestors[3], and of 17 September 2020 on the situation in Russia: the poisoning of Alexei Navalny[4],

– having regard to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR),

– having regard to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, in particular Chapter 2, and specifically Article 29, which protects freedom of speech, and to the international human rights obligations to which Russia has committed itself as a member of the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the UN,

– having regard to the statements of the President of the European Council and of the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (VP/HR) of 17 January 2021 following the detention of Alexei Navalny,

– having regard to the statement of the President of the European Commission of 18 January 2021 following the detention of Alexei Navalny,

– having regard to the statements of the VP/HR of 24 August and 2 September 2020 on the poisoning of Alexei Navalny and to the declaration of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy on behalf of the EU of 3 September 2020 on the poisoning of Alexei Navalny,

– having regard to Rule 132(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas on 17 January 2021, Alexei Navalny, a leading Russian opposition politician, lawyer, blogger and anti-corruption activist, was arrested at Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow, upon his return to Russia from Germany, where he had had medical treatment, and was denied access to his lawyers;

B. whereas on 18 January 2021, Alexei Navalny was sentenced to 30 days in prison, pending trial, during an unprecedented and hastily organised hearing procedure which took place at a police station, without the presence of Navalny’s lawyer;

C. whereas Alexei Navalny had been transported to Germany while in a coma to receive medical treatment after being poisoned on 20 August 2020 by members of the Federal Security Service (FSB) of the Russian Federation;

D. whereas the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin hospital concluded that Alexei Navalny had been poisoned with a nerve agent from the Novichok group of military grade nerve agents developed by the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation, which are only available to military structures and secret services in Russia; whereas the nature of the poisoning has been confirmed by multiple laboratories;

E. whereas under the Chemical Weapons Convention, any poisoning of an individual through the use of a nerve agent is considered a use of chemical weapons and whereas the use of chemical weapons by anyone under any circumstances constitutes a serious breach of international law and international human rights standards;

F. whereas Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service announced that Alexei Navalny was detained pending a court hearing for violating the terms of an earlier suspended sentence, regarding the so-called Yves Rocher case;

G. whereas in a ruling from 17 October 2017, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled that Alexei Navalny and his brother Oleg were unfairly convicted of financial crimes in the so-called Yves Rocher case in 2014 and that Russian courts handed down ‘arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable’ decisions in the case, and ordered the Russia Federation to pay the two brothers over EUR 80 000 in damages and costs;

H. whereas on 25 April 2018, after revising the case following a request by the ECtHR, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation upheld the verdict against Alexei Navalny and his brother Oleg in the so-called Yves Rocher case;

I. whereas Alexei Navalny has been attacked, detained, arrested and sentenced previously, in attempts to stop his political and public activities;

J. whereas Russian prosecutors have launched new criminal cases against Alexei Navalny and have used the politically motivated convictions to bar him from running in the 2018 Russian presidential elections;

K. whereas around 70 people had been detained while waiting for the return of Alexei Navalny, according to reports by OVD-Info, an independent media project on human rights and political persecutions in Russia;

L. whereas the assassination attempt and the arrest of Alexei Navalny are just the latest examples of the very serious backsliding on the protection of human rights and respect for democratic principles and the rule of law in the Russian Federation;

M. whereas according to the renowned Russian human rights society Memorial, there are over 300 political and religious prisoners in the Russian Federation;

N. whereas the rights to freedom of thought and speech, association, and peaceful assembly are enshrined in the constitution of the Russian Federation;

O. whereas numerous assassination attempts by poisoning with military grade nerve agents and other means, as well as the refusal to cooperate on the court case regarding the downing of flight MH17, have brought the EU and the West’ relations with the Russian Federation to a historic low point;

1. Calls for the immediate release of Alexei Navalny and of all individuals detained in relation to his return to Russia;

2. Condemns the arrest of Alexei Navalny and the politically motivated repression carried out against him by the Russian authorities, including through the use of the justice system;

3. Calls on the Russian authorities to put an end to the harassment, intimidation, violence and repression of political opponents;

4. Condemns in the strongest possible terms the behaviour of the Russian Federation, which it deems inappropriate for a member of the Council of Europe and the OSCE which has committed to respecting fundamental freedoms, human rights and the rule of law as enshrined in the ECHR and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; encourages the Council of Europe and the OSCE to take appropriate measures to evaluate the breaches of commitments made by the Russian Federation;

5. Underlines that the arrest of Alexei Navalny, and the attempted assassination against him, is part of a systemic effort to silence him and other dissident voices and to deter political opposition in the country; expresses its solidarity with the democratic forces in Russia, which are committed to an open and free society;

6. Condemns the Russian Federation’s repeated use of chemical nerve agents against Russian citizens and recalls that the use of chemical weapons under any circumstances constitutes a reprehensible crime under international law;

7. Reiterates its calls on the Russian Federation to provide full and complete disclosure of its Novichok programme to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, to hold to account those responsible for the crime committed against Alexei Navalny and for an international investigation into breaches of Russia’s international commitments in the area of chemical weapons;

8. Calls on the European Council and the Foreign Affairs Council to take an active stance on this matter at their next meetings and to significantly strengthen the EU’s restrictive measures vis-à-vis Russia, including by sanctioning the individuals and legal entities involved in the decision to arrest and imprison Alexei Navalny;

9. Calls on the Member States to critically review the EU’s cooperation with Russia through various foreign policy platforms and such projects as Nord Stream 2;

10. Calls for the EU to increase its support to Russian dissidents, non-governmental organisations and civil society organisations, and independent media and reporters;

11. Regrets that Alexei Navalny will not be allowed to address the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), as scheduled for 19 January 2021, while the Russian parliamentary delegation has recently been allowed to return to PACE;

12. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the Council, the Commission, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and the President, Government and Parliament of the Russian Federation.