EU Sanctions VK for Surveillance App Ties Amid Human Rights Violations

On July 13, 2026 the EU sanctioned VKontakte and its subsidiary Communication Platform LLC over the Max messaging app, which is reportedly supervised by the FSB, pre-installed on mobile devices sold in Russia, and used to monitor and suppress dissent; the package includes travel bans and asset freezes and also targets other entities tied to human rights abuses and cybercrime such as Citadel, VAS Experts, and Norsi-Trans.