Canada slaps sanctions on three Moscow courts for ‘systematic human rights abuses’

The Canadian government has introduced sanctions against the Moscow City Court, as well as Moscow’s Basmanny and Khamovniki District Courts, the statement is published on the official government website.

Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said that Ottawa continues to denounce “the Kremlin’s ongoing and systematic human rights abuses” which, in turn, support “Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine”. “We call on Vladimir Putin to immediately put an end to these abuses and to end his illegal and unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine,” she added.

The statement reads that the sanctioned courts have been “directly involved in human rights abuses against Russian opposition leaders”, including Alexey Navalny, Vladimir Kara-Murza, and other Russian nationals.

On 17 August, the US Treasury introduced sanctions against four FSB officers who were involved in the poisoning of Russian politician Alexey Navalny. The US government believes that the agents in question used the Novichok nerve agent in the poisoning operation.