President Zelensky extends sanctions against Russian media channels
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a decree extending sanctions against Russian media channels, including REN TV, NTV, Zvezda, TNT, and other propaganda resources for the next ten years.
The sanctions will affect the multimedia center Izvestia, the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets, as well as a number of Russian TV channels, newspapers, and information agencies operating in Russia and in the occupied territories of Crimea:
- Moscow Media JSC
- First Channel International JSC
- Uranus LLC
- Information Center for Radio Broadcasting, Arts, and Culture «Faith, Hope, Love»
- TV and Radio Company «Saint Petersburg»
- TV and Radio Company «Crimea»
- Information platform «Crimea Press»
- Crimean Newspaper
- TV and Radio Company «Yalta»
These restrictions include asset blocking, trade operation restrictions, prevention of capital outflow from Ukraine, and other measures.
On May 17, the European Union Council adopted a decision to suspend the broadcasting of Russian propaganda media within the bloc, including RIA Novosti, Izvestia newspaper, Russian newspaper, and the pseudo-Czech site Voice of Europe, which is essentially a project of former Ukrainian MP Viktor Medvedchuk.
On March 31, 2024, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) together with Czech counterintelligence announced the exposure of a network that financed local deputies for promoting Russian propaganda in the European Union. On April 11, the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine stated that the Kremlin had increased funding for internal propaganda regarding the war with Ukraine to $500 million per year. This includes structures that are not officially related to the state but create content supporting the Kremlin regime in the form of blogs, news, films, series, video games, etc.
