The EU has sanctioned four individuals responsible for spreading pro-Kremlin disinformation and propaganda as part of Russia’s broader hybrid campaign against Europe.
On March 16, the Council of the European Union imposed restrictive measures on four individuals responsible for Russia’s hybrid activities, specifically Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) targeting the EU, its member states, and partners. The decision brings the total number of individuals listed under the EU’s hybrid threats sanctions framework to 69, alongside 17 entities. Those sanctioned are subject to an asset freeze and a travel ban barring them from entering or transiting EU territory. EU citizens and companies are prohibited from making funds or economic resources available to them.
Sergey Klyuchenkov
Russian propagandist Sergey Klyuchenkov has used his television and radio platforms to spread disinformation justifying Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. According to the Council, Klyuchenkov “has repeatedly called for further violence in Ukraine, including against civilians.” Beyond that, the Council states he called for the “de-Ukrainisation” of occupied territories and the occupation of Baltic states and publicly suggested retaliatory strikes against countries supporting Ukraine, including the United States, Türkiye, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom.
Ernest Mackevičius
Lithuanian-born Russian news anchor Ernest Mackevičius hosted the evening news programme on Russian state television. The Council notes he “regularly spread false narratives about Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, Ukraine itself and its armed forces” – making him a frontline distributor of official Kremlin disinformation to a mass domestic audience through one of Russia’s most-watched broadcast slots.
Graham Phillips
British national Graham Phillips has spent years embedding himself in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories, producing content designed to justify Russia’s war of aggression. The Council notes his activities include “regularly filming content in Russian-occupied areas, including interviews with captured British fighters” — a practice widely condemned as a violation of international humanitarian law — as well as writing what the Council describes as “propaganda articles about Russia’s occupied territories of Ukraine”.
Adrien Bocquet
The most operationally significant listing in this round is that of French national Adrien Bocquet. The Council describes him as having “repeatedly positioned himself as an amplifier of Kremlin propaganda in Europe and in Russia” through appearances at symbolic conflict sites, interviews with Russian television, publications on his X account, and contributions to Kremlin-funded outlets. He is now living in Moscow and holds Russian citizenship granted personally by Vladimir Putin, according to available sources.
Bocquet first came to public attention in April 2022, weeks after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, when he claimed to have travelled to Ukraine on a humanitarian mission. Upon returning to France, he gave a series of media interviews — initially on fringe right-wing outlets, then on mainstream platforms — alleging he had witnessed Ukrainian soldiers, specifically members of the Azov regiment, committing war crimes near Bucha: shooting Russian prisoners of war in the legs, executing Russian officers, and preventing medical assistance from reaching wounded Russian soldiers. His accounts were picked up internationally and cited by Russia’s Foreign Ministry.
Subsequent investigations by journalists and fact-checkers dismantled his claims entirely. The images Bocquet provided showed he had only ever been to Lviv, near the Polish border — far from Bucha — and the dates did not match his stated timeline. He provided no footage of the scenes he described, contradicted himself across multiple interviews, and was found to have used a photomontage to falsely suggest he had visited Kyiv.
Despite the debunking, the Kremlin did not let the fabricated narratives go to waste. Russian state propaganda continued to circulate Bocquet’s claims to accuse Ukrainian forces of war crimes and frame Russia’s invasion as justified — a textbook inversion of perpetrator and victim. Bocquet relocated to Russia, where state media portrayed him as a victim of French persecution. He appeared on the Kremlin’s flagship Vremia programme, repeating narratives about the “denazification” of Ukraine, and gave interviews to Sputnik, according to the same sources.
Since then, Bocquet has built out his own media infrastructure, founding a self-described “independent” outlet and presenting himself as a war correspondent specialising in the Russian-Ukrainian war. He has also worked for Afrique Média — a Russian propaganda outlet targeting African audiences — and participated in the so-called “International Public Tribunal for Ukraine”, a Russian-organised body that, according to analysts, functions as a propaganda exercise designed to redirect attention from documented Russian atrocities rather than any genuine accountability mechanism.
His utility to Moscow is well understood by researchers. Maxime Audinet, a specialist in Russian influence operations, has noted that French nationals like Bocquet “serve to launder Russian propaganda” – arguing that a French citizen defending pro-Kremlin positions carries more perceived credibility than a Russian state media presenter delivering the same message.
Sanctions Framework
The restrictive measures framework targeting Russia’s destabilising activities was established on October 8, 2024, targeting individuals engaged in actions that undermine the fundamental values of the EU and its member states – including hybrid activities directed at third countries and international organisations.
The EU’s High Representative issued a statement on July 18, 2025, strongly condemning Russia’s persistent malicious hybrid campaigns as “broader, coordinated, and long-standing” threats to democratic foundations across the EU and its partners. The European Council reinforced this in its December 2025 conclusions, condemning all recent hybrid attacks against the Union. As the Council reaffirms, the EU and its member states “will continue to draw on the full range of tools available to protect, prevent, deter, and respond to such malicious behaviour.”