MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION on the situation in Russia: the poisoning of Alexei Navalny
14.9.2020 - (2020/2777(RSP))
pursuant to Rule 132(2) of the Rules of Procedure
Anna Fotyga, Witold Jan Waszczykowski, Ryszard Czarnecki, Jadwiga Wiśniewska, Alexandr Vondra, Bogdan Rzońca, Assita Kanko, Joanna Kopcińska, Elżbieta Kruk, Ruža Tomašić
on behalf of the ECR Group
See also joint motion for a resolution RC-B9-0280/2020
B9‑0283/2020
European Parliament resolution on the situation in Russia: the poisoning of Alexei Navalny
The European Parliament,
– having regard to the Treaty on European Union (TEU),
– having regard to its previous resolutions on Russia,
– having regard to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (‘The European Convention on Human Rights’),
– having regard to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
– having regard to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), to which the Russian Federation is a party,
– having regard to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, in particular Chapter 2 on the Rights and Freedoms of Man and Citizen,
– having regard to the debate held by the Committee on Foreign Affairs on 10 September 2020,
– having regard to the Chemical Weapons Convention,
– having regard to Rule 132(2) of its Rules of Procedure,
A. whereas on 20 August 2020, the leader of the Russia of the Future party, Alexei Navalny, was hospitalised and left in a serious but stable condition after suffering a poisoning in what is believed to be a politically motivated attack;
B. whereas on 22 August 2020, Alexei Navalny was transported to Berlin on a medical evacuation flight and put into a medically induced coma;
C. whereas on 2 September 2020, the German government, following a clinical and toxicological screening, announced that Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a military-grade Novichok nerve agent;
D. whereas a nerve agent from the same family was used in EU territory to poison Sergei Skripal and Yulia Skripal; whereas the British authorities identified two Russian nationals, using the names Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, as suspects behind the Skripals’ poisoning, and alleged that they were active officers in Russia’s military intelligence (GRU);
E. whereas the Russian Federation, under the obligation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights, and as a full member of the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, has committed itself to the principles of democracy, rule of law and respect for fundamental freedoms and human rights;
F. whereas the use of chemical weapons by anyone under any circumstances is completely unacceptable and is a clear violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, a breach of international law, constitutes a security threat to us all and undermines the rules-based international order;
G. whereas the Russian authorities and political leadership continue their repressive and authoritarian regime against their own citizens, civil society, political opposition and media workers, who are often subject to acts of harassment, surveillance, physical attacks, threats, raids and searches of their offices and homes, slander and smear campaigns, judicial harassment, arbitrary detention, and ill-treatment, as well as violations of the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly;
H. whereas Russia’s slide into authoritarian rule has had a negative impact on EU-Russia relations and on stability in Europe and the world, and has forced the EU and Member States to come to a more common, strategic approach with regard to Putin’s Russia;
I. whereas the poisoning of Alexei Navalny represents a pattern of behaviour by Putin’s Russia that has affected several leading opposition figures, journalists, activists and foreign leaders, including, but not limited to, Boris Nemtsov (an opposition politician), Anna Politkovskaya (a journalist and civil activist), Sergei Protazanov (an opposition newspaper worker), Alexander Litvinenko (defector) and Viktor Yushchenko (the third President of Ukraine);
J. whereas state-sponsored assassinations and the physical elimination of opposition leaders, as was the case of Boris Nemtsov, have gone unpunished and people accused of committing these outrageous crimes were awarded by the Kremlin;
K. whereas the reactions of Western democracies to these assassinations and other aggressive actions of the Russian Federation were not sufficient enough to deter the Kremlin from continuing its hostile and oppressive policies;
L. whereas the VP/HR stated that the European Union condemned in the strongest possible terms the poisoning, while NATO called for Russia to disclose its Novichok nerve agent programme to international monitors and insisted that Russia uphold its commitments under the Chemical Weapons Convention;
1. Strongly condemns the violence directed against the leading Russian opposition figure, Alexei Navalny;
2. Expresses its sympathy to the family of Mr Navalny and its hope for his prompt and full recovery;
3. Regards his poisoning as an attack against democracy and political plurality in the Russian Federation;
4. Calls for a joint and adequate international response to this case; stresses that the poisoning of Mr Navalny cannot be classified as a domestic matter for the Russian Federation, as this crime breaches international law;
5. Condemns the offensive use of any military-grade nerve agent developed by Russia and underlines that this is not the first time in recent years that Russia has used nerve agents against dissidents and opposition figures;
6. Urges the European Council to adopt restrictive measures against those responsible for the use and proliferation of chemical weapons;
7. Deplores and condemns Kremlin’s hybrid warfare tactics and calls on the Council to block Russia’s access to the SWIFT system and introduce further targeted sanctions;
8. Reiterates its position on the controversial Nord Stream-2 pipeline, which is a political project designed to reinforce EU dependency on Russian gas supplies and threatens the EU’s internal market as it is in line with neither EU energy policy nor our strategic interests, and therefore needs to be stopped; calls on the EU institutions and the Member States, in particular those engaged in the contested pipeline, to fulfil this position in a spirit of solidarity and objection to Russian aggressive policies and take all the necessary measures to block this strategic project from the Kremlin;
9. Is concerned over the constitutional amendments that were recently adopted in a questionable referendum; is of the opinion that such changes to the Constitution of the Russian Federation serve as another worrisome development proving that the policy of the Kremlin will remain oppressive towards Russian civil society and is designed to project its dominance over the post-Soviet world;
10. Is of the opinion that in view of continuation by the Russian Federation of its oppressive domestic policies and aggressive actions worldwide, including in Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Syria and Libya, the democratic West should strengthen its policies and take more determined actions in order to respond appropriately to the challenges we face;
11. Urges an international investigation into the poisoning under the auspices of the International Partnership against Impunity for the Use of Chemical Weapons and reiterates the Russian Federation’s responsibility in providing transparent, prompt and effective investigative support on who is responsible for the attack and providing all the needed assistance for them to be brought to court;
12. Urges the Russian authorities to ensure accountability, not only in the case of Mr Navalny, but also in cases where people are suspected of having been poisoned or assassinated by Putin’s regime;
13. Calls on the international community to take the appropriate legal steps and use all available legal tools, in view of the Magnitsky Act, to prevent and put a stop to the attacks against opposition politicians and civil activists;
14. Considers such actions to likely have the intention of stamping out civil and political activism in the Russian Federation;
15. Reiterates that the EU should stand in full solidarity with Russian civil society and use the European human rights violations sanctions regime to sanction perpetrators of serious human rights violations, and calls on the Council to pursue its work on this matter without delay; stresses that perpetrators of human rights abuses should not be granted EU visas nor be allowed to keep assets in Member States;
16. Urges the Russian federation to address the questions raised by the international community urgently and to provide immediate, full and complete disclosure of its Novichok programme to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons;
17. Calls on the VP/HR to remain closely focused on Mr Navalny’s poisoning and its implications in Russia until those responsible are brought to justice;
18. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the Presidential Executive Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and the Russian State Duma.