The Vice-President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency, Věra Jourová, announced on X on Wednesday 15 May that the ambassadors of the Member States to the EU had decided to sanction “four Kremlin-linked propaganda networks”: Voice of Europe, RIA Novosti, Izvestija and Rossiyskaya Gazeta (see EUROPE 13406/1).
A European source stated that the written procedure relating to the decision to sanction these four entities “in view of Russia’s actions to destabilise the situation in Ukraine” would end on Friday 17 May.
According to the Vice-President of the Commission, Member States have also decided to ban Russian funding of EU media, NGOs and political parties.
The European source also noted that Member States had focused their discussions on certain specific aspects of the 14th package of sanctions against Russia. According to them, following the debate, the additional guidelines provided by the delegations and the technical work, the Commission will present a revised proposal in the next few days.
The whole package will be discussed again by the Member States' ambassadors to the EU the following week. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)