PACE called for punishing those involved in Kara-Murza's arrest and Navalny's death

All the persons directly responsible for and participating in the persecution and ill-treatment of Vladimir Kara-Murza* should be included in targeted sanctions lists, established under the “Magnitsky laws”, said PACE, meeting in plenary session.

PACE recalled that “Magnitsky laws”, such as those adopted by the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, many Central and Eastern European countries and the European Union, allow for imposing targeted sanctions against perpetrators of serious human rights violations who enjoy impunity in their own country.

The adopted resolution also states that Mr. Kara-Murza’s supporters consider the particularly harsh sentence imposed on him (25 years in prison) “as retaliation for his long-standing vocal support for ‘Magnitsky laws’.”

In this context, PACE called on the EU and all states having laws on targeted sanctions to “include in their sanctions lists the persons directly responsible for the persecution and ill-treatment of Mr. Kara-Murza”. It also invited all states which have not yet adopted “Magnitsky laws” to do so without further delay.

In addition, PACE called on the Russian authorities to release Mr. Kara-Murza without delay and, in the meantime, to rectify his conditions of detention, and urged all states negotiating exchanges of prisoners with the Russian Federation to include Mr. Kara-Murza in any such exchange.

PACE has paid tribute to Alexei Navalny, declaring that the Russian state bears full responsibility for his death, and urged a series of sweeping measures to counter what it called Vladimir Putin’s “totalitarian regime”.

PACE also called on the EU and other states to impose sanctions on those directly responsible for the persecution, ill-treatment and death of Alexei Navalny. In addition, the assembly called on the EU and the G7 to strengthen sanctions against Russia by imposing sanctions on the Moscow Stock Exchange and “Rosatom,” as well as lowering the upper limit on oil prices in order to reduce oil revenues as a source of income for Russia;

The Assembly also stated that it was creating a contact platform for dialogue with Russian democratic forces, and called for the creation of a position of a general rapporteur on this topic.