European Union: Sanctioned Russian media entities and individuals’ content accessible on Telegram
Report co-author: Saman Nazari, Alliance4Europe
This report is the fifth in a series looking at major online platforms’ enforcement of EU sanctions on Russian media entities (see previous reports on Google/YouTube, TikTok, Meta and X/Twitter).
The EU sanctions regime
In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2014 and reached full-scale in 2022, the EU enacted sanctions against a number of individuals and organizations offering support to the Russian war effort.
In addition to political and military decision-makers or military-industrial organizations, several Kremlin-controlled media entities and prominent propagandists are included in this sanctions list. Consequently, broadcasting content from these entities is forbidden in the EU.
On May 14, 2024, the European Commission further clarified that the sanctions prohibit hosting content from these persons or entities or making them available to EU audiences on content-sharing platforms or search engines.
As of September 24, 2024, the following media entities are under sanction:
| Russia Today and its subsidiaries | Sputnik and its subsidiaries |
| Katehon | Rossiya 24 / Russia 24 |
| New Eastern Outlook | Rossiya 1 |
| NTV/NTV Mir | Rossiyskaya Gazeta |
| Oriental Review | Spas TV Channel |
| Pervyi Kanal | Rossiya RTR / RTR Planeta |
| REN TV | Tsargrad TV Channel |
| RIA Novosti | TV Centre International |
| Izvestia | Voice of Europe |
Telegram hosts and disseminates content from sanctioned entities to EU audiences
Despite these legal provisions, as of late September 2024, Telegram still makes content produced by sanctioned Russian state-controlled media and sanctioned media personalities accessible to European audiences.
A widespread presence of sanctioned content and channels was recorded on Telegram, with large media channels easily accessible to EU audiences. Despite sanctions, these channels, some with millions of followers, remain accessible, showing no evident effort to restrict or block access to this content in the EU. These channels include:
- 26 sanctioned media entities’ official channels,
- 11 personal channels of personalities specifically sanctioned by the EU (see Annex I of Council Regulation No 269/2014), including several with a large following,
SANCTIONED MEDIA CHANNELS ACCESSIBLE TO EU AUDIENCES
Out of the eighteen sanctioned media outlets, fifteen have been identified as having at least one Telegram channel openly accessible from within the EU, despite the imposed sanctions. These channels are all active and vary in reach, with some having millions of followers and others just a few thousand. The accessibility of these outlets is significantly higher than on any previously studied platform.
| NAME | LINK | STATUS |
| RT – Egypt روسيا اليوم – مصر | https://t.me/s/Rtegypt | Active, Arabic |
| Школа RT | https://t.me/s/RTschool | Active, Russian |
| RT Online | https://t.me/s/rtonlinearabic | Active, Arabic |
| برنامج قصارى القول – RT Arabic | https://t.me/s/RTQusara | Active, Arabic |
| Sputnik Iran Media | https://t.me/s/ir_sputnik | Active, Persian |
| Sputnik Francias | https://t.me/s/sputnik_francias | Active, French |
| Sputnik Литва | Новости | https://t.me/sputniknews_lt | Active, Russian |
| Russia Beyond en français | https://t.me/s/russiabeyond_fr | Active, French |
| Sputnik საქართველო | https://t.me/s/SputnikSaqartvelo | Active, Georgian |
| РИА Новости | https://t.me/s/rian_ru | Active, Russian |
| Katehon | https://t.me/katehonEN | Active, English |
| Katehon en français | https://t.me/katehonFR | Active, French |
| Katehon auf Deutsch | https://t.me/katehonDE | Active, German |
| New Eastern Outlook FR | https://t.me/NewEasternOutlookFR | Active, French |
| New Eastern Outlook | https://t.me/NewEasternOutlook | Active, English |
| New Eastern Outlook RU | https://t.me/NewEasternOutlook_RU | Active, Russian |
| Первый канал | https://t.me/s/ChannelOne_official | Active, Russian |
| РЕН ТВ|Новости | https://t.me/rentv_news | Active, Russian |
| РЕН ТВ | Телеканал | https://t.me/s/rentv_channel | Active, Russian |
| IZ.RU | https://t.me/izvestia | Active, Russian |
| ВЕСТИ | https://t.me/vestiru24 | Active, Russian |
| Россия 1 | https://t.me/s/tvrussia1 | Active, Russian |
| Российская Газета | Новости | https://t.me/s/rgrunews | Active, Russian |
| Телеканал СПАС | https://t.me/spastv | Active, Russian |
| Царьград ТВ | https://t.me/tsargradtv | Active, Russian |
| Russland danach 🚀 | https://t.me/russlanddanach | Active, German |
CHANNELS OF SANCTIONED INDIVIDUALS
11 personal channels of media personalities specifically sanctioned by the EU in Annex I of Council Regulation No 269/2014, including some with very large followings, were identified on Telegram. The Telegram channels of these sanctioned personalities collectively reach millions, with Vladimir Solovyov commanding over 1.3 million followers alone. Prominent figures like Margarita Simonyan, with more than 550,000 followers, and Zakhar Prilepin, nearing 300,000, also have a sizable audience on the platform.
| NAME | LINK | STATUS |
| SOLOVYOV (Vladimir Solovyov) | https://t.me/SolovievLive | Active, Russian. Listed under number 230 of the EU sanctions list. |
| Виталий Третьяков (Vitaliy Tretyakov) | https://t.me/vtretyakov1953 | Active, Russian. Listed under number 1499 of the EU sanctions list. |
| Маргарита Симоньян (Margarita Simonyan) | https://t.me/margaritasimonyan | Active, Russian, Listed under number 228 of the EU sanctions list. |
| Agdchan (Alexander Dugin) | https://t.me/Agdchan | Active, Russian, Listed under number 1261 of the EU sanctions list. |
| Скабеева (Olga Skabeyeva) | https://t.me/skabeeva | Active, Russian, Listed under number 683 of the EU sanctions list. |
| Роман Бабаян (Roman Babayan) | https://t.me/s/robabayan | Active, Russian, Listed under number 686 of the EU sanctions list. |
| АНТОН ВЯЧЕСЛАВОВИЧ (Anton Krasovsky) | https://t.me/krasovkin | Active, Russian, Listed under number 688 of the EU sanctions list. |
| Тигран Кеосаян (Tigran Keosayan) | https://t.me/tigrankeosayan | Active, Russian, Listed under number 682 of the EU sanctions list. |
| Захар Прилепин (Zakhar Prilepin) | https://t.me/zakharprilepin | Active, Russian, Listed under number 687 of the EU sanctions list. |
| Андрей Медведев (Andrey Andreevich Medvedev) | https://t.me/MedvedevVesti | Active, Russian, Listed under number 1507 of the EU sanctions list. |
Recommendations
While Telegram has signaled its intention to step up moderation efforts on some illegal content following the Aug 24, 2024 arrest of its CEO Pavel Durov in France, there is no sign that the platform has made any significant effort to ensure the effective application of EU sanctions on Kremlin-controlled media. To date, content and actors that violate EU sanctions remain freely accessible to EU-based audiences without restriction.
We therefore recommend that Telegram fully implements sanction-related EU regulations by:
- taking action on the content and channels listed in this report,
- proactively looking for content and actors similar to those listed in this report,
- reviewing all names on the EU sanctions list to ensure they do not have an EU-accessible presence on the platform.
- ensuring that the channels identified are not benefitting from revenue-sharing mechanisms which could run afoul of EU sanctions.
We also recommend that civil society actors alert both platforms and authorities when they identify sanctioned accounts or content within the EU.
