Overview
- On February 23, the Council of the European Union imposed asset freezes, entry and transit bans, and barred EU persons and companies from providing funds to eight designated individuals.
- Those listed include judges Andrei Shibakov and Eva Gunter, prosecutor Sergei Filichev, and investigator Ilya Pleshkov for roles in politically motivated cases against activists Dmitry Skurikhin and Oleg Belousov.
- The EU also targeted penal officials Vyacheslav Pisklov and Alexei Valizer in Altai Krai, Maksim Prilepsky in Oryol Oblast, and Anton Richar in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast.
- The Council cited reports that political prisoners Aleksei Gorinov, Pavel Kushnir, Mikhail Kriger, and journalist Maria Ponomarenko were kept in solitary confinement and inhuman, degrading conditions.
- The listings, published in the EU’s Official Journal, come after a February 14 statement by five European governments reporting lab findings that Navalny likely died from poisoning and submitting results to the OPCW.