The European Union on Monday announced sanctions against the Kremlin-aligned Safe Internet League and its head Yekaterina Mizulina for silencing Russian anti-war content creators and reinforcing government censorship.
“The [European] Council today approved additional restrictive measures… in view of the continuing deterioration of the human rights situation in Russia,” the Council of the EU said in a statement.
Mizulina is in charge of “initiating official complaints to the Russian law enforcement agencies against internet content creators, i.e. bloggers, as well as musicians, celebrities and influencers,” the EU decision reads.
“As a result, Yekaterina Mizulina is forcing Russian internet content creators and artists either to delete anti-government content or to create content in favor of the Russian government and its policies.”
Mizulina, 39, is the daughter of former senator Yelena Mizulina, who has been under Western sanctions since the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Her Safe Internet League was co-founded by Orthodox businessman Konstantin Malofeyev, according to the EU’s sanctions listing.
Two Russian judges and a prosecutor were also sanctioned for targeting Kremlin critics like Vladimir Kara-Murza, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence for treason and “fake news” about the war in Ukraine.
The trio are accused of issuing “biased decisions in politically motivated cases” which are “based on false allegations.”
The sanctions impose an asset freeze and a ban on traveling to the EU.