Next EU sanctions to strike at Russia's pro-war media

Upcoming EU sanctions will strike at Russia's media bullhorn while shedding light on the horrors behind the propaganda facade.

Draft new EU blacklists of 144 individuals including popular Russian TV presenters Boris Korchevnikov and Marina Evgenievna Kim, singer Grigory Lepservidze, and writers Dmitry Puchkov, Nikita Mikhailov, and Sergey Mikheev, EU Observer reports.

Korchevnikiov, for instance, posts comments on social media that "associate the West and Ukraine with godlessness and the devil," the EU sanctions documents, seen by EUobserver, said.

Mikheev speaks of "the purported necessity of 'denazification' and 'demilitarisation' of Ukraine" and promotes "the Russkiy Mir [Russian world] ideology", they added, referring to a Kremlin conceit of a clash of civilisations between Eurasia and the West.

The EU aims to slap asset freezes and visa bans on four members of the Kovalchuk family, which owns media and social media firms, and which hobnobs with Russian president Vladimir Putin.