BRUSSELS, February 19. /TASS/. There isn’t enough legal basis for the European Union to impose sanctions on big Russian businessmen, a diplomatic source in Brussels said in relation to the February 22 meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers.

"As for Russian oligarchs, the idea of sanctions against them runs counter to our policy. We adopt sanctions in order to encourage the Russian government to change its policies, sanctions are imposed on individuals involved in specific decisions of the government, and this requires a serious legal basis," the source pointed out.

The diplomat confirmed that several EU countries had submitted initiatives to the Council of the European Union, calling on sanctions against Russia over human rights violations in the Navalny case. "We are considering restrictions against several Russian individuals and officials as part of the EU human rights sanctions mechanism," the source added.

According to the diplomat, the foreign ministers won’t discuss the situation surrounding Alexey Navalny at their February 22 meeting. "We will discuss the signals that Russia is sending and the European Union’s response to them," he said, adding that the meeting would particularly focus on ways to fight the misinformation that, according to Brussels, was coming from Russia.