The European Union on Monday imposed sanctions on Russian military intelligence officers, hackers and private companies, claiming they conducted a yearslong cyber espionage campaign to undermine the bloc.
Nine people and four entities accused were accused of links to an online spying network that the EU said has targeted governments and carried out sabotage operations against critical infrastructure like heating and power plants since 2010.The European Council said in a statement that those targeted “contribute to Russia’s efforts to destabilize the EU, its member states and international partners.” It said the espionage and attacks have taken place in at least nine countries.
France, Germany, Poland, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Austria, Slovakia, Romania and Finland, “among others” have been targeted, the statement said.
The names of the individuals and entities were not listed on the statement.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said that France intends to summon the Russian ambassador in the coming days. He told French BFM television that the aim of the cyber activities is “either to capture information, or sabotage the operation, for example, of railway infrastructures as it was the case in Poland.”
The EU focused its measures on the Federal Security Service, the FSB which it said had been “controlling a variety of cyber threat groups,” and “has conducted a wide range of malicious cyber activities with growing severity.”
Romania accused Russia of using cyberattacks and propaganda to interfere with Dec, 2024 elections which were cancelled and a rerun was staged six months later.
Sweden said in April that that a pro-Russian group with links to Russia’s security and intelligence services was behind a cyberattack on a heating plant last year.
There have been recent warnings from officials in Poland, Norway, Denmark and Latvia that Russia is attacking critical infrastructure across Europe
