The European Union has imposed restrictions against 16 individuals and three legal entities suspected of carrying out “Russia’s destabilizing actions abroad,” marking a first in the EU’s sanctions practice.
“These measures are in response to Russia’s malicious actions and its lack of respect for a rules-based international order and international law,” read a statement issued by the EU Сouncil earlier today. The decision was imposed in line with a new legal framework set up on Oct. 8, 2024 to target Russia’s hybrid threats against the EU.
Aside from the 19 listings mentioned above, the EU also unveiled its 15th sanctions package today, targeted at “further limiting Russia’s ability to wage its illegal, unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine.”
It includes 84 listings — 54 individuals and 30 organizations that “undermine or threaten the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” 52 ships used by Russia to circumvent sanctions, and 32 entities supporting the Russian military-industrial complex, some of which are located in third countries (China, India, Iran, Serbia and the UAE).
The Insider has extensively reported on Russia's efforts to circumvent sanctions, including the supply of machine tools, microchips, and other critical technologies, as well as Western-made weapons to its military-industrial complex and the “shadow fleet” used to transport Russian oil.
The list of individuals and entities sanctioned for aiding Russia’s hybrid warfare includes the following:
- GRU Military Unit No. 29155, a secret unit of Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate, known for its involvement in assassinations and destabilizing activities abroad.
“Through coups, assassinations, bombings, and cyberattacks against other countries around the world in connection with the war in Ukraine, it has sought to create chaos and destabilise European Union countries,” the EU document read.
The Insider’s extensive coverage of GRU Unit 29155 has exposed the entity’s responsibility for explosions at ammunition depots in Bulgaria and the Czech Republic and tied the group to Havana Syndrome.
- Major General Andrey Averyanov, commander of GRU Unit 29155. Averyanov is currently wanted by the Czech police on suspicion of organizing the ammunition depot explosions in Vrbetice in 2014, which led to the deaths of two people and the destruction of 150 tons of ammunition. The UK imposed sanctions against Averyanov in November of this year. The EU’s sanctions document, however, focuses on Averyanov’s work in the Africa Corps — an entity under Russia’s Ministry of Defense that took over the Wagner Group’s operations on the continent.
The document states that Russia’s forces in Africa “provide security to military juntas that have overthrown legitimate democratic governments” and “exploit the natural resources there to finance their operations,” pointing to the Russian takeover of the Intahaka gold mine in Mali in 2024.
- The EU list also includes other high-ranking GRU officers — Colonel Denis Smolyaninov, who specializes in psychological operations, and his subordinates Vladimir Lipchenko and Yuri Sizov, who created agent networks tasked with carrying out arson and other attacks on critical infrastructure in EU countries and Ukraine.
Smolyaninov’s activities were detailed by the Dossier Center, which reported on his group’s sabotage operations in Europe. These efforts involved recruiting criminals and ordinary citizens through Telegram and TikTok.
- Tina Kandelaki, Deputy General Director of the Gazprom Media holding. The sanctions document describes her as “a public figure who has been using her popularity and influence in the public sphere to voice Russian propaganda and to justify the ongoing Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.”
According to the document, “several TV channels owned and governed by Gazprom Media Holding have replaced Ukrainian TV outlets on local TV frequencies previously seized forcefully by Russians after the Russian invasion of Crimea and have thus actively participated in the process of the illegal annexation of Crimea.”
- Artem Kureev, an FSB operative who acts as the editor-in-chief of “African Initiative” — a media organization dedicated to spreading disinformation and Russian propaganda in Africa, as exposed by The Insider in an investigation earlier this year.
Kureev announced the creation of African Initiative in October 2023 — two months after the death of Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin — with the new entity taking over structures that were previously under Wagner’s control. A month later, Kureev launched the RusAfro Media portal, featuring articles translated into all major languages spoken in Africa. These outlets amplify the Kremlin's anti-Western agenda, spreading narratives about genetically modified mosquitoes and allegations that Western pharmaceutical companies conduct biological experiments and drug testing in Africa.
- Vladimir Sergienko, a former assistant to Bundestag deputy Eugen Schmidt of the AfD, actively cooperated with Russian intelligence. The Insider reported on Sergienko’s communications with an FSB operative in August 2023. In February 2024, we revealed the operative’s identity: Ilya Vechtomov of the FSB’s Fifth Service.
Sergienko’s tasks from the FSB included slowing the delivery of German main battle tanks to Ukraine.
- Sofia Zakharova, Head of the Department of the Presidential Directorate for the Development of Information and Communication Technologies and Communication Infrastructure, and Nikolai Tupikin, General Director and founder of Structura National Technologies LLC. Both were sanctioned due to their involvement in Doppelgänger — a digital disinformation operation targeting the EU, the U.S., and Ukraine.
The Doppelgänger bot network, repeatedly reported on by The Insider and the Bot Blocker project, spreads fabricated anti-Western and anti-Ukrainian news items published on cloned websites of reputable outlets like Der Spiegel and Le Parisien. As part of the Doppelgänger campaign, the Kremlin hires individuals to commit acts such as drawing antisemitic graffiti. These physical acts are then seized upon by the bot network, which disseminates pseudo-journalistic articles claiming a supposed rise in antisemitism across Western Europe. A recent investigation by the German nonprofit Correctiv confirmed the ties between Doppelgänger and Russia’s Ministry of Defense.
- Visa Mizaev, a Russian businessman who, together with his wife, Olga Belyavtseva, played a key role in a Russian intelligence operation against Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (BND), during which the FSB was able to obtain highly classified data.
The 15th sanctions package included the Russian military unit responsible for the Jul. 8, 2024 strike on the Okhmadyt children hospital in Kyiv, senior managers in leading companies in Russia’s energy sector, individuals responsible for the deportation of Ukrainian children, Russian civilian airline Utair (“an important provider of logistical support to the Russian military”), real estate developer PIK, singer Larisa Dolina, as well as North Korea's Defense Minister No Kwang Chol and Deputy Chief of the General Staff Kim Yong Bok — among multiple others.
52 ships were also subject to a port access and service ban, bringing the total of EU-designated vessels to 79. The measure was designed to “target non-EU tankers that are part of Putin’s shadow fleet circumventing the oil price cap mechanism or support the energy sector of Russia” — or vessels transporting stolen Ukrainian grain or military equipment for Russia.
The 15th package also marked a first — the imposition of fully-fledged sanctions (travel ban, asset freeze, prohibition to make economic resources available) on a number of Chinese actors “supplying drone components and microelectronic components in support of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.”
The Russian publication RBC, citing a statement from Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, reported that Hungary had secured the exclusion of Patriarch Kirill (the head of the Russian Orthodox Church), the Russian Olympic Committee, and Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN (a position held by Vasily Nebenzya) from the EU's 15th sanctions package.