On Monday 15 December, the EU Council adopted sanctions against five individuals and four entities supporting Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’, and against a further twelve individuals and two entities deemed responsible for information manipulation and cyber attacks against the EU and its Member States.
‘Shadow fleet’. As regards support for the ‘shadow fleet’ , the sanctioned individuals are businessmen - Murtaza Lakhani, Anar Madatli, Valery Kildiyarov, Talat Safarov and Etibar Eyyub - linked, directly or indirectly, to Rosneft and Lukoil. In addition, according to the Council, these individuals control vessels transporting crude oil or petroleum products originating in or being exported from Russia, concealing the actual origin of the oil, while practising irregular and high-risk maritime transport operations.
The entities targeted are shipping companies based in the United Arab Emirates (Nova Shipmanagement LLC-FZ and Citrine Marine SPC), Vietnam (Hung Phat Maritime Trading) and Russia (SeverTransBunker Company Limited), which own or manage tankers sanctioned for being part of the ‘fleet’, and which transport crude oil or petroleum products, while practising irregular and high-risk shipping operations.
At the end of the Council, EU High Representative, Kaja Kallas, announced that the EU had sanctioned a further 40 vessels from the ‘fleet’. “From now on, we will also be sanctioning vessels in the ‘shadow fleet’ on an ongoing basis, with decisions taken every month”, she added.
Hybrid attacks. The EU is also sanctioning foreign policy analysts linked to the Kremlin’s messaging and policy apparatus, and influencers promoting pro-Russian propaganda, conspiracy theories and anti-Ukrainian and anti-NATO narratives. They are John Dougan, Dmitry Suslov, Andrey Sushentsov, Fyodor Lukyanov, Ivan Timofeev, Andrei Bystritskyi, Diana Panchenko, Jacques Baud, and the Franco-Russian former military officer and founder of the Stratpol website, Xavier Moreau.
The Council is also sanctioning the ‘International Russophile Movement’ for amplifying destabilising narratives for the Russian government, and the ‘142nd Separate Electronic Warfare Battalion’, “responsible for using technology to disorganise any system of shortwave communication [and] conducting electronic warfare exercises”.
Lastly, three members of the Russian Military Intelligence Agency (GRU), unit 29155, and of cyber threat group Cadet Blizzard, Vladislav Borovkov, Denis Denisenko and Dmitriy Goloshubov, are being sanctioned.
See legal acts: https://aeur.eu/f/jzg (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)