Foreign minister Pekka Haavisto (Green) will visit St. Petersburg on Monday, February 15 to meet with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Ministers are expected to discuss the arrest and detention of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, EU-Russia relations and the current situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, Belarus and Ukraine.
Finland and other EU countries have opposed the treatment of Navalny, who was jailed three and a half years earlier this week on charges of violating the terms of a suspended sentence.
Haavisto has tweeted earlier this week that the verdict against the opposition leader was unfounded.
"Navalny’s imprisonment is unacceptable and contradictory [a] a sense of justice. Whereas the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Navalny’s initial judgment was arbitrary and unreasonable;" the Foreign Minister wrote.
During his visit, Haavisto will also meet with representatives of non-governmental organizations, the ministry said.
Source: The Nordic Page