EU foreign ministers agree to prepare Russian sanctions, diplomats say

European Union foreign ministers agreed on Monday to go ahead with sanctions on four senior Russian officials in response to the jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, two EU diplomats said, allowing preparations for listings to begin.

No names were discussed during the meeting of the bloc's 27 foreign ministers, but diplomats said Russia's head of the Investigative Committee, which handles probes into major crimes, the director of prisons, the director of Russia's National Guard and the prosecutor general were to be targeted.