The Tsargrad, Spas TV channels and presenter Anna Shafran (Palyukh), who is the head of the directorate of analytical radio shows at the Zvezda media holding, have been put on the sanctions list.
TV channels “Spas” and “Tsargrad” were included in the 12th package of EU sanctions.
They were put on the list of restrictions for spreading pro-Kremlin propaganda, justifying Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine, and receiving funds from the Russian government.
In the jusfitication of sanctioning Tsargrad, the attention is also drawn to the Telegram channel “Orthodoxy and zombies”, which is engaged in propaganda of nationalist views about the alleged Russian nature of the illegally occupied territories of Ukraine and the justification of the illegal removal of Ukrainian children to Russia and their subsequent adoption…
Everything is more or less clear with Tsargrad as it belongs to Konstantin Malofeev, who has long been under sanctions. But “Spas” is the official TV channel of the Moscow Patriarchate, which it owns in full.
This is the first statement made at such a level that the Russian Orthodox Church is responsible for spreading propaganda.
Patriarch Kirill had come under sanctions in Great Britain, Canada, the Czech Republic, and is prohibited from entering Lithuania. But at the EU level, Hungary blocked the inclusion of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in the sanctions lists.
Now “Spas” and “Tsargrad” will be banned in Europe, in those countries where they still air. It is unlikely that they have European counterparties and accounts, but if so, they will be frozen.
Anna Shafran, the host at Spas and Zvezda, came under personal sanctions, and that’s how everyone learned that her real laast name is Palyukh.
On December 18, the Council of the European Union announced its 12th package of economic and individual restrictive measures against Russia over its war of aggression against Ukraine.
In particular, Russian TV channels “Tsargrad”, “Spas”, the presenter of the “Zvezda” media holding, Anna Shafran (Palukh) and the “Znanie” society came under sanctions.
The “black list” also included Russian propagandists and collaborators working in the temporarily occupied territories of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions and Crimea, as well as companies that provide communication services (and, accordingly, broadcasting propaganda) and their managers.
In addition, several companies working in the field of IT and information security were included in the sanctions list: “Informzakhist”, “Infotex”, and “Bizon”. The service ban also applies to enterprise management software and industrial design and manufacturing software.
These measures deal an additional blow to Putin’s ability to wage war by targeting valuable sectors of the Russian economy and making it more difficult to circumvent EU sanctions, said the EU High Representative Josep Borrell.
