July 13 (Reuters) – The European Union on Monday broadened sanctions against Russia to include individuals and entities responsible for cybercrime and human rights violations, naming popular social media app VKontakte among them.
• VKontakte and its daughter company Communication Platform LLC were added to the list for their role in developing and managing the MaxApp for Russian smartphones, under the supervision of the FSB security agency.
• The app is pre-installed on all mobile devices sold in Russia.
• EU countries said MaxApp was used for repression of critics of Russia’s war against Ukraine and of people who posted other content banned by authorities.
• Restrictive measures were also imposed on Citadel, VAS Experts and Norsi-Trans – companies that manufacture, develop, and sell hardware and software related to a surveillance system that monitors phone calls, emails, text messages, and social networks.
• The EU said this network targets journalists, opposition figures, minority groups, and ordinary citizens.
• The EU also imposed sanctions on officers from Russia’s military intelligence service GRU, cybercriminals and companies that it said were active in Russia’s efforts to destabilise Europe.
• It also accused the FSB of controlling “a variety of cyber threat groups”.
(Reporting by Bart Meijer, editing by Andrei Khalip)
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