EU Imposes First Sanctions for Russia’s Covert Operations in Europe
17 December, 2024 Remains of property in the village of Vrbetice after the warehouse explosions. Photo credits: radio.cz For the first time in history, the Council of the European Union has imposed sanctions against individuals and legal entities responsible for Russia's destabilizing actions abroad.
This was reported by European Pravda, citing a statement by the EU Council. The new sanctions, announced on December 16, are a response to "Russia's malicious actions and its disrespect for the rule-based international order and international law." The blacklist includes military unit 29155 of the Main Directorate of the Russian General Staff (GRU), which is involved in assassinations abroad and destabilizing actions such as bombings and cyberattacks in Europe.
In 2021, Czech law enforcement authorities filed charges against the unit's commander, Colonel General Andrei Averyanov, for organizing a sabotage in 2014. The explosions killed two Czech citizens and caused more than CZK 1 billion (£42.5 million) in damage.
Response to the aftermath of the ammunition depot explosion in Vrbetika, Czech Republic, 2014
Official Prague believes that the Russian military organized sabotage attacks on ammunition depots in the Czech village of Vrbetice in late 2014, killing two people. The target was allegedly weapons that Bulgarian businessman Emilian Gebrev was trying to purchase.
He was later assassinated by the Novichok chemical warfare agent. In 2024, an investigation revealed that the Shaposhnikov family of Russian emigrants living in Greece and holding a Czech passport was involved in the organization of the sabotage. In 2023, it also became known that this military unit was involved in the November 12, 2011, explosions in the Bulgarian village of Lovnidol, where an ammunition depot blew up.
At the time, EMCO was storing more than 3,000 152 mm shells. It was established that before each explosion, some members of Averyanov's unit crossed the border and were in the countries where the sabotage took place.
How GRU officers arrived at the Lovnidola warehouse in 2011.
Image: The Insider
The EU has also imposed sanctions on the Pan African Trade and Investment Group, a disinformation network that conducts pro-Russian covert influence operations in Africa. In addition, sanctions were imposed on the African Initiative, a news agency that spreads Russian propaganda and disinformation in Africa. Additionally, the EU Council imposed sanctions against Sofia Zakharova, an official in the Russian presidential administration, and Nikolai Tupikin, the head and founder of the state corporation Struktura, as part of the fight against Russia's duplicitous disinformation campaign.
The new sanctions also target Vladimir Sergienko, a former assistant to Bundestag member Eugen Schmidt of the Alternative for Germany, who actively cooperated with Russian intelligence, as well as Russian businessman Viza Mizayev and his business partner and wife, who were involved in a Russian intelligence operation against the German Federal Intelligence Service.