EU imposes sanctions on Russians over human rights and cybercrime

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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