The European Union on Monday sanctioned Russia’s Prosecutor General Alexander Gutsan along with dozens of other individuals and entities accused of supporting the war against Ukraine or being involved in the death of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in 2024.
Besides Gutsan, the latest sanctions package targets Metropolitan Tikhon of Simferopol and Crimea, Russian Supreme Court Justice Oleg Nefedov and several FSB security service officers allegedly involved in Navalny’s persecution, poisoning and death.
Metropolitan Tikhon is often described in media reports as President Vladimir Putin’s personal confessor.
To further choke off Russia’s crude oil export revenues, the EU said it was sanctioning two individuals and 24 entities in Russia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Liberia and Azerbaijan for operating within Moscow’s sanctions-evading “shadow fleet.” The Lukoil-Western Siberia production branch was also included in the maritime listings.
In addition, the EU sanctioned 10 individuals and Russia’s Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives for “justifying, promoting or legitimizing” the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The company IPJSC NTK was also targeted for supplying Russian authorities with facial recognition systems used to monitor and detain anti-war activists and Navalny supporters in Moscow.
So, too, were Russian drone and other military equipment makers, as well as a Chinese lubricant additive company, among the 21 entities and seven people sanctioned in the defense industry.
“These measures strike at the heart of Russia’s military-industrial complex, its shadow fleet and the networks that fuel Moscow’s hybrid attacks against Europe,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.
Kallas estimated that Western sanctions have collectively cost Russia up to 1.3 trillion euros ($1.5 trillion), claiming that Ukraine’s allies are “collapsing the foundations of Russia’s war economy brick by brick.”
She added that EU member states are already working to finalize a broader, 21st sanctions package against Russia.
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