OREANDA-NEWS. Vladimir Batyuk, head of the Center for Political-Military Studies of the Institute for the United States and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told RIA Novosti that the possibility of Western countries imposing sanctions against the Russian Federation because of the case of Alexei Navalny is not yet visible. At the same time, he added that much will depend on the development of the situation in Russia itself.

The Simonovsky Court of Moscow on Tuesday ruled to cancel Navalny's suspended sentence in the Yves Rocher case and replace him with 3.5 years in a general regime colony. Shortly thereafter, leading Western countries including the United States, Germany, France and the United Kingdom appealed to the Russian authorities to release him, promising to consider imposing new sanctions.

As Batyuk noted, the Western countries have not yet reached a common position on the advisability of imposing sanctions against Russia in this case.

The expert noted that the visit of the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign and Security Policy Josep Borrell to Russia was not canceled, and on the eve of the visit to Moscow, Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde. Thus, he believes that it is too early to talk about the threats of imposing any sanctions against Russia. No specific measures were taken against individuals or legal entities in Russia in connection with the Navalny case.

The Russian political scientist believes that if the protests in the Russian Federation decrease and this does not in any way affect the holding of parliamentary elections in the fall, then the Western partners will have no real opportunity to influence the internal political situation in Russia.