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	"created_at": "2026-04-06T00:13:52.397396Z",
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	"title": "EU issues first-ever sanctions over ‘Russian hybrid threats’",
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	"plain_text": "EU issues first-ever sanctions over ‘Russian hybrid threats’\r\nBy Alexander Martin\r\nPublished: 2024-12-16 · Archived: 2026-04-05 13:22:20 UTC\r\nThe European Council announced on Monday it was sanctioning 16 individuals and three entities “responsible for\r\nRussia’s destabilising actions abroad.”\r\nIt is the first time the bloc’s political executive is issuing sanctions under powers established in October. When the\r\npowers were agreed, Brussels said they were a response to the Kremlin’s “intensifying campaign of hybrid\r\nactivities” targeting member states and partners.\r\nThe sanctions aim to impact a wide range of actors, from those involved in GRU Unit 29155 — a Russian military\r\nintelligence unit that has been accused of cyberattacks and assassinations — through to other intelligence agency\r\nstaff and private individuals involved in spreading Russian propaganda both in Europe and Africa.\r\nAmong the individuals being sanctioned for propaganda are Sofia Zakharova and Nikolai Tupikin, both of whom\r\nhave been linked to the Doppelgänger influence campaign by a U.S. Department of Justice affidavit.\r\nThe sanctions also target several people involved in “a Russian intelligence operation against the German Federal\r\nIntelligence Service (BND) in which highly classified information was passed to the FSB,” including Vladimir\r\nSergiyenko, an aide to a far-right German politician.\r\n“Lastly, the Council also targeted collaborators of the Government of the Russian Federation in France: Alesya\r\nMiloradovich, a Russian government employee, and Anatolii Prizenko, a Moldovan businessman who coordinated\r\nthe dispatch of several Moldovan citizens to France in October 2023,” it stated.\r\nThe individuals and entities that have been sanctioned will be “subject to an asset freeze and EU citizens and\r\ncompanies will be forbidden from making funds available to them. In addition, natural persons will also be subject\r\nto a travel ban, which will prevent them from entering or transiting through EU territories.”\r\nIn his statement when the powers were first agreed, the then European Council’s high representative, Josep Borell\r\nFontelles, said the bloc had “detected an increasing number of a broad range of activities” intended to “divide …\r\ndestabilize and weaken the EU.”\r\nBorell — who had issued a very similar condemnation before — said these activities have included cyberattacks,\r\ninformation and influence campaigns, as well as “cases of arson, vandalism and sabotage, including against our\r\ncritical infrastructure.”\r\nRussia was also accused of instrumentalizing migrants to disrupt the bloc, as well as disrupting satellite\r\ncommunications, violating European airspace, and attempting to “conduct physical attacks against individuals on\r\nthe territory of the EU.”\r\nhttps://therecord.media/eu-issues-sanctions-over-russia-hybrid-threats\r\nPage 1 of 3\n\nIt remains to be seen how effective the EU’s response will be. Despite the intentions of its sanctions regime,\r\nquestions have been raised about the EU’s capability to effectively attribute and respond to hostile foreign\r\nactivities, particularly its failure to coordinate measures with those taken by partners such as the United States and\r\nUnited Kingdom.\r\nEarlier this year, the European Council blamed a “clerical error” after identifying the wrong Russian intelligence\r\nagency in a formal sanctions notice over a series of cyberattacks targeting member states alongside Ukraine. The\r\nmistake highlighted several discrepancies between the EU’s approach and that of the Five Eyes intelligence\r\nalliance.\r\nSimilar concerns about Russian hybrid activity have been raised by the North Atlantic Council, NATO’s political\r\nexecutive, which said earlier this year that the alliance was “deeply concerned about recent malign activities on\r\nAllied territory, including those resulting in the investigation and charging of multiple individuals in connection\r\nwith hostile state activity.”\r\nNATO subsequently announced it would adopt a range of measures to address hostile Russian activities including\r\nsabotage and spying, most of which seem modeled on the British response to Russian intelligence operations.\r\nNo previous article\r\nNo new articles\r\nhttps://therecord.media/eu-issues-sanctions-over-russia-hybrid-threats\r\nPage 2 of 3\n\nAlexander Martin\r\nis the UK Editor for Recorded Future News. He was previously a technology reporter for Sky News and a fellow\r\nat the European Cyber Conflict Research Initiative, now Virtual Routes. He can be reached securely using Signal\r\non: AlexanderMartin.79\r\nSource: https://therecord.media/eu-issues-sanctions-over-russia-hybrid-threats\r\nhttps://therecord.media/eu-issues-sanctions-over-russia-hybrid-threats\r\nPage 3 of 3",
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