Brussels. May 17. INTERFAX-The EU Council announced on Monday its decision to extend the framework of restrictive measures against cyber attacks that threaten the EU or its member states, which affect citizens and organizations from Russia, for another year, until May 18, 2022.
"This framework allows the EU to impose targeted restrictive measures against individuals or entities involved in cyber attacks that have a significant impact and pose an external threat to the EU or its member States," the council said.
On July 30, 2020, the EU Council imposed sanctions against a number of Russian citizens for their alleged involvement in cyber attacks against the interests of the European Union. The names of Alexey Minin, Alexey Morenz, Yevgeny Serebryakov and Oleg Sotnikov were listed in the annex to the EU Council resolution.
The Main Center of Special Technologies (as formulated in the EU Council resolution) of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces also fell under the sanctions.
All four Russians were accused of participating in an "attempted cyberattack with potential (negative - IF) consequences against the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)" in the Netherlands.
They were identified as employees of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, who tried to carry out unauthorized penetration into the OPCW Wi-Fi network in The Hague in April 2018.
On October 22, 2020, the EU Council imposed sanctions against two individuals and a special GRU center for cyber attacks on the German Bundestag and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
Dmitry Badin from the 85th Main Special Operations Center (as it was formulated in the document) of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Federation, Vice Admiral Igor Kostyukov, were sanctioned. Restrictions were also imposed on the 85th Main Special Operations Center.
Baden, as reported in the annex to the EU Council resolution, "was part of a group of Russian military intelligence officers who carried out a cyber attack on the German Federal Parliament ("Deutscher Bundestag") in April and May 2015."
"This cyberattack targeted the parliamentary information system and disrupted its operation for several days. A significant amount of data was stolen, and the email accounts of several parliamentarians, as well as Chancellor Angela Merkel, were affected," the publication notes.
Kostyukov, as a leader, is charged with cyberattacks "with significant consequences that pose an external threat to the union or its member states."