The European Union is set to add Wildberries chief executive Tatyana Kim, reportedly the richest woman in Russia, to its list of people sanctioned due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
EU foreign ministers are set to approve the blacklisting of Kim along with more than 40 mainly Russian individuals and companies when they assemble in Brussels on November 16.
Kim is perhaps the most prominent person on the list, seen by RFE/RL.
Born in Grozny in 1975, she set up Wildberries, often dubbed Russia's Amazon, and has an estimated net worth of some $8 billion.
The sanctions proposal notes that “Wildberries functions as a supply network for the Russian military by facilitating the sale of military and dual-use goods” and adds that “the company has formed a strategic partnership with majority state owned VTB Bank, an entity listed by the European Union.”
Wildberries came to wider international prominence this summer when Ukraine began targeting its warehouses with drone strikes.
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Wildberries: Ukrainian Drones Strike 'Russia's Amazon' Near St. Petersburg
Other names include the entrepreneur Aleksandr Chachava who holds a stake in Russia’s biggest IT company, Yandex, and is also involved in Ozon, one of the country’s biggest e-commerce companies. The bloc claims these firms are serving as “a supply network for the Russian military by facilitating the sale of military equipment and dual-use goods.”
Billionaire Ruslan Baysarov is also included as he holds a controlling stake in BTS-Gold, a significant gold-mining company that has already been sanctioned by Brussels.
Businessman Sergei Matvienko is proposed for listing for being a shareholder of LLC Megalit-Okhta Group, one of Russia’s largest real-estate developers, which according to the text “acts as a major fiscal contributor to the budget of the Russian Federation.”
He is otherwise known to be the son of Valentina Matvienko who is the chairwoman of the Federation Council, Russia's upper house of parliament. She has been sanctioned by the EU since 2014 for supporting the Russian annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula that same year.
Among the many entities listed are regional Russian banks and roughly 20 oil refineries. There are also a few companies from China, the Seychelles, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that are being targeted for either purchasing Russian oil or owning vessels that are part of Russia’s shadow fleet of tankers used to circumvent Western sanctions on its oil exports.
'Pro-Russian Hacker Group'
The European Union has sanctioned over 4,600 individuals and firms since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly five years ago. The latest batch is part of a new approach adopted in early autumn to add names to the blacklist on a monthly basis.
Separately, EU foreign ministers are set to add more names on November 16 to two other sanctions lists targeting individuals and entities the bloc holds responsible for cyberattacks and hybrid attacks against it.
On the cyber-blacklist, just one entity is proposed for sanctioning -- NoName057(16).
The proposal, seen by RFE/RL, describes it as “pro-Russian hacker group that first emerged in March 2022 and claims responsibility for cyber-attacks on government bodies, critical infrastructure, and private companies of Ukraine, the United States of America and Member States.”
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Wider Europe Briefing: Europe's Fruitless Search For A Ukraine Peace Envoy; EU Safeguards For MontenegroIt goes on to say that the group uses denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks by repeatedly issuing network requests to target websites and then addresses targets and issues threats on the dark web or through Telegram channels.
The hybrid sanction proposal is mainly aimed at the Social Design Agency (SDA) and several of its leading figures. According to the bloc, this Moscow-based PR company is carrying out “large-scale information manipulation and interference projects funded, directed and supervised by the Russian Presidential Administration.”
The sanctions document adds that SDA “systematically manipulates the media and social-media environment, spreads pro-Russian propaganda and operates fake news and hybrid influence campaigns using fabricated content, cloned media brands, Wikipedia-like platforms and staged offline provocations.”
These types of campaigns occurred in Germany and France and several other European countries during the 2024 European Parliament elections.
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US Congress Urged To Tighten Russia Sanctions, Speed Military AidSeveral Kremlin-friendly journalists are also among those targeted, including Irish citizen Chay Bowes, who works for RT International. The sanctions document says Bowes has been involved in numerous information operations conducted by the Wagner Group-founded organization that calls itself the Foundation to Battle Injustice (R-FBI), which the EU sanctioned last year. It also accuses him of spreading "anti-Western and anti-Ukraine disinformation at the UN Security Council" after being invited by Russia's mission to the United Nations.
The EU diplomats are also working on sectoral sanctions in what will be the 22nd package of measures to hit the Kremlin since its full-scale invasion in 2022.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told journalists ahead of the European Political Community Summit in Dublin on November 12 that the proposal will be presented to EU member states before the next EU summit on November 26-27.
According to EU diplomats familiar with the issue who spoke on condition of anonymity, the new measures will likely include sanctions on the Russian banking sector, cryptocurrencies, and shadow fleet vessels.
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Cold Play: Nations Line Up To Boycott Ice Hockey Games Against RussiaIn light of several nations refusing to play Russia as it was invited back to participate in the ice hockey world championship, the European Commission is also set to update its visa guidelines for EU member states on how to make it easier to bar Russian athletes from entering the bloc.