Brussels, December 21, 2023
Two Russian Orthodox television stations were added to the European Union’s sanctions list this week.
The EU adopted on Monday its 12th package of sanctions against Russia since the war began in February 2022. “The focus of this package is to impose additional import and export bans on Russia, combat sanctions circumvention and close loopholes. In particular, this package includes additional listings of Russian individuals and companies and new import and export bans,” the European Commission of the European Union explains.
According to a report from the European Council, these latest sanctions “will also cover the Russian IT sector, 2 entities and 2 individuals responsible for circumventing EU sanctions, as well as actors spreading disinformation and propaganda in support of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, including Tsargrad TV Channel, and Spas TV Channel, Russian propaganda media outlets.”
The Spas channel is owned by the Moscow Patriarchate. It was blocked by YouTube in March 2022.
Tsargrad is a political and religious channel and website owned by Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeev, who has been personally sanctioned by the U.S., EU, and Canada since 2014. In 2017, he was placed on Ukraine’s international wanted list, accused of creating illegal paramilitary groups in Donbass.
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