Brussels agrees first sanctions against those responsible for hybrid attacks on EU
That’s according to the Council’s press service, Ukrinform reports.
“For the first time ever, the Council today decided to impose restrictive measures against 16 individuals and three entities responsible for Russia’s destabilising actions abroad. These measures are in response to Russia’s malicious actions and its lack of respect for a rules-based international order and international law,” the report reads.
The sanctions framework targets those engaged in Russia’s actions and policies undermining the fundamental values of the EU and its member states, their security, stability, independence and integrity, as well as those of international organizations and third countries, through hybrid activities, including the use of coordinated information manipulation and interference.
On the same day, the EU also issued a statement condemning Russia’s intensifying campaign of hybrid activities.
“Today’s listings include GRU Unit 29155, a covert unit within the Russian military intelligence agency (GRU), known for its involvement in foreign assassinations and destabilisation activities such as bombings and cyber-attacks across Europe, and some of its military personnel active in Ukraine, Western Europe and Africa,” the press release says.
The Council targeted the “Doppelganger”, a Russian-led digital disinformation campaign aimed at manipulating information and spreading disinformation in support of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and targeting EU member states, the United States, and Ukraine, by sanctioning Sofia Zakharova, the department head in the Russian President’s Office, and Nikolai Tupikin, head and founder of GK Struktura.
Today’s sanctions also target Vladimir Sergiyenko, a former parliamentary assistant to the Member of the German Bundestag, Eugen Schmidt, who actively colluded with Russian intelligence, and a Russian entrepreneur, Visa Mizaev, and his business partner and wife, who played a key role in a Russian intelligence operation against the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) in which highly classified information was passed to the FSB.
Lastly, the Council also targeted Russian collaborators in France: Alesya Miloradovich, a Russian government employee, and Anatolii Prizenko, a Moldovan businessman who coordinated the dispatch of several Moldovan citizens to France in October 2023.
A number of entities and individuals were also sanctioned over malign influence operations in Africa.
Those designated today will be subject to an asset freeze, EU citizens and companies will be forbidden from making funds available to them, and natural persons will be subject to a travel ban, including EU transit.
As reported earlier, in its conclusions of June 27, 2024, the European Council strongly condemned all types of hybrid activities, which are on the rise and target the EU, its member states and partners.
