EU to sanction Russian propagandists, singers and writers – media reports
EU is preparing new sanctions against the Russia (Photo:REUTERS/Yves Herman)
The European Union plans to impose sanctions against Russian propagandists, singers and writers, the EUobserver online newspaper reported on Dec. 12.
It is noted draft new EU blacklists of 144 individuals include popular Russian TV presenters Boris Korchevnikov and Marina Evgenievna Kim, singer Grigory Lepservidze, and writers Dmitry Puchkov, Nikita Mikhalov, and Sergey Mikheev.
Korchevnikiov, for instance, posts comments on social media that “associate the West and Ukraine with godlessness and the devil,” the EU sanctions documents, seen by EUobserver, said.
In turn, Mikheev speaks of “the purported necessity of ‘denazification’ and‘demilitarisation’ of Ukraine” and promotes “the Russkiy Mir (Russian world) ideology,” they added, referring to a Kremlin propaganda trope of there being a clash of civilisations between Eurasia and the West.
The EU aims to slap asset-freezes and visa bans on four members of the Kovalchuk family, which owns media and social media firms, and which hobnobs with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
One of them, Tatyana Kovalchuk, is “Russia’s third-richest woman with a net worth of $600 million (EUR 569 million)” and co-owns the Igora ski resort near St Petersburg in Russia “where Putin’s daughter celebrated her wedding,” the EU documents said.
Five business executives from the Russian Ren TV and TV-Novosti firms are also to be held accountable.
At the same time, three Russian television channels — NTV/NTV Mir, Rossiya 1, and REN TV — are to have their broadcasting licences revoked in EU countries.
The listed Russian media were guilty of “gravely distorting and manipulating facts” in order to justify war against Ukraine and destabilise EU countries, constituting “a significant and direct threat to the Union’s public order and security,” the documents said.
The European Union on Oct. 6 adopted an eighth package of sanctions against Russia in response to its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In particular, the sanctions package features a ban on the transportation of oil to third countries at a price above a newly established price cap.
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