Russia Today – Image © Benoit Prieur
(BRUSSELS) – The EU introduced new sanctions on Russia Wednesday in response to its brutal military aggression against Ukraine, urgently suspending the broadcasting activities of Sputnik and Russia Today.
This includes suspending the activities of RT English, RT UK, RT Germany, RT France, and RT Spanish in the EU, or directed at the EU, until the aggression to Ukraine is brought to an end, and ‘until the Russian Federation and its associated outlets cease to conduct disinformation and information manipulation actions against the EU and its member states’.
“Systematic information manipulation and disinformation by the Kremlin is applied as an operational tool in its assault on Ukraine. It is also a significant and direct threat to the Union’s public order and security,” said the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell: “Today, we are taking an important step against Putin’s manipulation operation and turning off the tap for Russian state-controlled media in the EU.”
Sputnik and Russia Today are under the permanent direct or indirect control of the authorities of the Russian Federation and have been instrumental in bringing forward and supporting the military aggression against Ukraine, and for the destabilisation of its neighbouring countries.
The EU executive says the Russian Federation has engaged in a ‘systematic, international campaign of disinformation, information manipulation and distortion of facts in order to enhance its strategy of destabilisation of its neighbouring countries, the EU and its member states’. In particular, disinformation and information manipulation has repeatedly and consistently targeted European political parties, especially during the election periods, civil society and Russian gender and ethnic minorities, asylum seekers and the functioning of democratic institutions in the EU and its member states.
In order to justify and support its military aggression of Ukraine, the Russian Federation stands accused of engaging in continuous and concerted disinformation and information manipulation actions targeted at the EU and neighbouring civil society members, gravely distorting and manipulating facts.
The decisions complement the package of measures announced after a meeting of EU Foreign Affairs Ministers on 27 February. This included the provision of equipment and supplies to the Ukrainian Armed Forces through the European Peace Facility, a ban on the overflight of EU airspace and on access to EU airports by Russian carriers of all kinds, a ban on the transactions with the Russian Central Bank, and the SWIFT ban for certain Russian banks.
The EU has condemned in the strongest possible terms the Russian Federation’s unprovoked and unjustified military aggression against Ukraine, and is demanding that Russia ‘immediately ceases its military actions, unconditionally withdraws all forces and military equipment from the entire territory of Ukraine and fully respects Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence within its internationally recognised borders’.
The relevant legal acts have been published in the Official Journal.
Official Journal of the European Union, L 065, 2 March 2022
EU restrictive measures in response to the crisis in Ukraine
