The European Union’s top diplomat warned Moscow it could face new sanctions over the jailing Alexei Navalny, writes Reuters.

Josep Borrell said his visit last Friday to Moscow had cemented his view that Russia wanted to break away from Europe and divide the West, in a speech marking the EU’s harshest criticism of Moscow since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.

“The Russian government is going down a worrisome authoritarian route”, - said Borrell, who pleaded for Navalny’s release in Moscow and sought in vain to visit him in prison.

“There seems to be almost no room for the development of democratic alternatives ... they are merciless in stifling any such attempts”, - he told the European Parliament, saying that he believed the Kremlin saw democracy as an “existential threat”.