EU imposes sanctions on Russians over human rights and cybercrime
July 13 (Reuters) – The European Union on Monday expanded sanctions against Russia to include individuals and organizations responsible for cybercrime and human rights violations, including the popular social media app VKontakte.
• VKontakte and its subsidiary Communication Platform LLC were added to the list for their role in the development and management of MaxApp for Russian smartphones under the supervision of the FSB security agency.
• The application is pre-installed on all mobile devices sold in Russia.
• EU countries said MaxApp was used to suppress critics of Russia’s war against Ukraine and people who posted other content banned by authorities.
• Restrictive measures were also imposed on companies Citadel, VAS Experts and Norsi-Trans, which produce, develop and sell hardware and software related to a surveillance system that monitors phone calls, emails, text messages and social networks.
• The EU said that this network targets journalists, opposition figures, minority groups and ordinary citizens.
• The EU also imposed sanctions on officials in Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU, cybercriminals and companies it said were active in Russia’s efforts to destabilize Europe.
• He also accused the FSB of controlling “various cyber threat groups.”
(Reporting by Bart Meijer, editing by Andrei Khalip)
