EU sanctions Navalny's prison director on 20 July 2023
A look back at the sanctions step taken on 20 July 2023, alongside other regional developments reported in the days before.
What did the European Union do on 20 July 2023 to address the detention of Alexei Navalny? It imposed sanctions on the director of the Russian prison where the opposition leader was being held. The step fell within the wider frame of Russia–European Union relations and targeted an individual responsible for the facility, rather than the Russian state as a whole.
The measure came amid other reports from the days before. On 16 July 2023, Oleg Khorzhan, a Transnistrian communist and opposition leader, was assassinated in a stabbing attack in his office. His killing was reported as an attack carried out inside his own workplace.
On 15 July 2023, Russia announced that it would investigate whether the North Korean Hwasong-18 missile had landed in the country's exclusive economic zone. The announcement placed North Korea–Russia relations in the news in the days leading up to the EU decision.
Taken together, the reports from 15, 16 and 20 July 2023 touched on opposition figures, Russia's neighbourhood and its relations with other governments. The EU sanctions on the prison director were the only one of these items that involved a direct EU action on that date, and they were aimed at the custody of a prominent opposition figure.
