BERLIN, February 7. /TASS/. The European Union needs dialogue with Russia, despite all the differences in their views, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz stated during an interview to the Welt am Sonntag German newspaper.

"Despite all the differences, we still need dialogue with Russia," Kurz said. At the same time, he called unacceptable the Russian court’s decision to replace the suspended sentence of the blogger Alexey Navalny with the real one. "I welcome the fact that the counties’ foreign ministers will soon discuss how and whether to respond (to this) by imposing targeted sanctions against some individuals," the Austrian chancellor said.

On Tuesday, during a visiting session in the Moscow City Court, the Simonovsky court converted Navalny’s suspended sentence under the Yves Rocher case into a real jail term. The blogger will serve his sentence in a general regime colony. He will remain in a pre-trial detention center until the decision comes into force.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the Western countries calling for releasing Navalny should mind their own business instead of meddling in Russia’s affairs.