EU Issues New DRC, Russia Sanctions Designations

The EU on July 28 added nine individuals to its sanctions regime covering those who commit human rights abuses and sustain armed conflict. The restrictions cover nine Congolese and Rwandan people who are charged with carrying out serious human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the European Council said. The people include members of non-state militant groups M23, Twirwaneho, ADF, APCLS, CODECO/ALC and FDLR/FOCA. In addition, a member of the Congolese Armed Forces and one member of the Rwanda Defense Force were listed.

In a separate announcement, the council sanctioned seven Russian people and five entities charged with carrying out a digital information manipulation campaign dubbed "RRN" (Recent Reliable News). The campaign sought to spread propaganda about the Russian war in Ukraine by using fake web pages "usurping the identity of national media outlets and government websites." The sanctioned parties are the online outlet Inforos, the Russian nonprofit ANO Dialog, the Institute of the Russian Diaspora and two Russian information technology companies -- Social Design Agency and Structura National Technologies.