Russia warns EU it is ‘ready’ to break off ties over threatened Navalny sanctions

Sergei Lavrov's remarks about ties with the EU come a week after he hosted Josep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief, left, in Moscow in what many in Europe saw as a humiliating visit

Credit: EPA/Russian Foreign Ministry Handout

Moscow said on Friday that it was “ready” to cut ties with the European Union if the bloc imposes further sanctions over its jailing of prominent opposition figure Alexei Navalny.

The comments mark another deterioration in relations between Russia and the West after Mr Navalny, an outspoken Kremlin critic, was poisoned with Soviet-made nerve agent Novichok last summer.

After a months-long convalescence in Germany, he returned to Russia in January, only to be arrested and later jailed for three years for violating the terms of his parole.

Mr Navalny’s ordeal has sparked Russia’s biggest nationwide protests in a decade and the EU has already imposed sanctions on six senior Russian officials over his poisoning.

Now it is raising the prospect of further sanctions and Moscow has signalled that it will fight back.

Asked in an interview on Friday if Russia was moving towards “breaking off” with the EU, Mr Lavrov said Russia was “ready” if “sanctions are imposed in certain areas that create risks for our economy”.

“We don’t want to isolate ourselves from the rest of the world but we need to be ready for this. If you want peace, prepare for war.”

A German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said “these statements are really disconcerting and incomprehensible.”

The foreign ministry and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later softened the minister’s remarks, insisting that he was misunderstood.

The foreign ministry said Russia had no plans to cut ties but that it would be “ready” if the EU were to do it.

Mr Peskov insisted that Moscow “wants to foster ties with the European Union but if the EU follows this path (of introducing further sanctions), then yes, we will be ready because you need to prepare for the worse.”

EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss new sanctions on Russia on Feb 22.

Mr Lavrov’s remarks came a week after as a disastrous visit to Moscow by Josep Borrell.

The EU foreign policy chief got a public dressing down by Mr Lavrov, who criticised the bloc for alleged human rights abuses in Latvia and said the relationship was marked by “lack of trust.”

While Mr Borrel was still in Russia, the Kremlin ordered three diplomats from Germany, Sweden and Poland to be expelled for observing January’s opposition protests.

Meanwhile, Mr Navalny, who has been locked up in a notorious Moscow’s prison since his return in January, was back on trial on Friday on charges of defaming a Second World War veteran.

Mr Navalny has accused Russian authorities of concocting the case and exploiting the 94-year-old man to smear him in the eyes of ordinary Russians on state TV.

He insisted that he was expressing an opinion and did not target the veteran in any way.

The charges related to Mr Navalny’s blog post last summer, in which he denounced a group of people filmed in a TV ad for President Putin’s constitutional reforms allowing him to stay in power as “lackeys and traitors.”