The European Union has imposed sanctions against nine Russians involved in the persecution of the politician Vladimir Kara-Murza. This is reported in the official journal of the EU.
“The EU Council has imposed prohibitive measures within the sanctions regime for human rights violations against nine individuals for convicting democratic activist Vladimir Kara-Murza to 25 years in prison”, the document says.
Under the restrictions were Deputy Minister of Justice Oleg Sviridenko, “expert” Danila Mikheev, SC officials Andrei Zadachin and Denis Kolesnikov, Moscow judges Diana Mishchenko, Elena Lenskaya, Ilya Kozlov and Sergei Podoprigorov, as well as the head of the Moscow SIZO-5 Dmitry Komnov.
Sviridenko supervises the departments responsible for “foreign agents”. The European Union believes that he is responsible for the recognition of Kara-Murza as a “foreign agent”.
Mikheev conducts expertise in many political cases. In particular, he did an “expertise” in the treason case against a politician, even though the Ministry of Justice had previously ruled him incompetent.
Four judges were involved in the “politically motivated prosecution” of Kara-Murza, as were the IC investigators who fell under sanctions. Komnov is in charge of the pre-trial detention facility where the opposition activist is being held.
The sanctioned Russians will be deprived of the right to enter the European Union. If their assets are found on EU territory, they will be frozen.
