EU sanctions VK, surveillance tech firms and prison officials in Russia rights crackdown

BRUSSELS, July 13, 2026 — The European Union on Sunday imposed sanctions on 11 individuals and five entities under its Russia sanctions regime, targeting officials tied to abuse at a prison in Mordovia and companies linked to digital surveillance and censorship in Russia. The measures were adopted through Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1708 and took effect upon publication in the Official Journal.

The package names Elena Gennadyevna Bagudina, general director of Communication Platform LLC, over the development and management of the state-backed Max mobile application, and sanctions Dmitry Valerianovich Gachko of VAS Experts, Sergey Anatolevich Ovchinnikov of Norsi-Trans and Mikhail Mikhailovich Fomin of LLC Citadel over their roles in supplying Russia’s SORM surveillance system. The EU said SORM enables the monitoring of phone calls, emails, internet traffic, text messages and social networks and has been used against journalists, opposition figures, minority groups and anti-war activists.

The bloc also listed Alexander Vladimirovich Gnutov, Alexei Vladimirovich Anashkin, Egor Viktorovich Averkin, Alexander Anatolevich Grishanin, Semyon Viktorovich Kuznetsov, Ivan Vasilyevich Veshkin and Galina Vasilievna Mokshanova, all officials at Penal Colony No. 10 in Mordovia. The regulation says hundreds of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians have been held there and subjected to torture, including electric shocks, beatings, stress positions, sexual violence, mock executions and denial of medical care.

Among the entities sanctioned were VK, Communication Platform LLC, VAS Experts, Norsi-Trans and LLC Citadel. The EU said VK and its subsidiary Communication Platform LLC supported repression through the Max app, which it said was developed under FSB supervision, required to be pre-installed on devices sold in Russia and integrated with Gosuslugi. The regulation says the app can monitor communications, VPN use, address books, installed applications and user location, while Russian authorities used information from the app to fine at least one citizen over content posted there.

The move broadens the EU’s use of its Russia sanctions framework to target both alleged physical abuses against Ukrainian detainees and the technological infrastructure that Brussels says underpins censorship, surveillance and repression inside Russia.