The European Union has tightened its grip on Russia again. On 15 June, the Council of the EU adopted a set of restrictive measures adding 34 individuals and 47 entities to its sanctions lists, in a package built to drain Moscow's war revenues and expose the networks that keep its aggression running.
The measures hit four fronts at once: the military-industrial complex, the shadow fleet that smuggles Russian oil past Western price caps, the propagandists who justify the war, and the state officials tied to Alexei Navalny's death in prison.
Seven individuals and 21 entities were listed for propping up Russia's defence industry. Among them is JSC Lavochkin Research and Production Association, an offshoot of the state space corporation Roscosmos, alongside drone and equipment suppliers such as Rustakt, ASFPV and IONOS.
Crucially, the net stretched into China. The Council named Shenzhen Minghuaxin and Xinxiang Richful Lubricant Additive Company — one of the largest lubricant-additive makers in the world — for feeding Russia's war effort. Two Kremlin-created bodies, the ERA Military Innovation Technopolis and the Foundation for Advanced Studies, were listed for developing military drones.
Energy money remains Russia's lifeline, and the EU went after the ships that carry it. The package listed two individuals — Tahir Garayev and Konstantin Rogach — and 24 entities involved in shipping Russian crude and petroleum products, many through the so-called shadow fleet of ageing, opaquely owned tankers built to dodge sanctions and price caps.
The listed firms span Russia, Liberia, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates, Azerbaijan and Hong Kong, and include Lukoil-Western Siberia. Brussels frames the fleet not just as a sanctions problem but as a threat to maritime safety and the environment across European waters.
Ten individuals and one entity were added for hybrid activities and disinformation, including prominent state propagandists such as Anatoly Kuzichev and Kirill Fedorov, a Russia-based social-media influencer, and a Russian Orthodox bishop accused of legitimising the war. The Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives, created by decree of Vladimir Putin, was also named.
Separately, the Council listed 15 individuals and one entity over the persecution and death of Alexei Navalny — Russian judges, prosecutors, FSB officers and medical staff — after a joint statement by the UK, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands that the opposition leader was poisoned with the toxin epibatidine. One listed company helped build a facial-recognition system used to detain journalists and protesters. The EU also renewed its measures over the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol until 23 June 2027.
Sanctions rarely end wars on their own, and this package will not either. But it shows where Brussels now believes the pressure points lie: not just Russian factories, but the Chinese suppliers and third-country shippers that keep them running. By naming firms in Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong, the EU is signalling it will chase the war economy wherever it hides. As Kaja Kallas, the bloc's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and chair of the Foreign Affairs Council, put it, the measures have cost Russia between €1 and €1.3 trillion so far — and a broader 21st package is already being drafted. The open question, as ever, is whether the squeeze comes fast enough to change Moscow's calculations.
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