Russia Today in Serbian – likely to be part of new EU sanctions package

The European Union (EU) is considering the possibility of sanctioning Russia Today (RT) Balkans, the Russian state-owned media outlet that broadcasts a Serbian-language programme, Radio Free Europe (RFE/RL) has learnt from reliable diplomatic sources.

As RFE/RL’s sources explained, the European Commission (EC) is in the process of preparing a new package of sanctions against the Kremlin over its aggression against Ukraine. A first round of consultations with Member States on the new package of restrictive measures has already taken place.

The preliminary list of new sanctions includes “the extension of the list of media outlets banned from broadcasting, including Russia Today Balkans”.

The EC’s formal proposal for a new sanctions package will be presented to Member States in the coming weeks. The EC’s formal proposal is being prepared with the participation of EU Member States and the sanctions have been adopted unanimously.

The Russian state-owned channel Russia Today (RT) started broadcasting in Serbian in November 2022. It is a webcast, i.e. online content.

Russia Today has already been sanctioned in the EU for broadcasting in other foreign languages. RT in German and French are already under European sanctions, and in April 2023 the same decision was taken for RT in Arabic.

When the decision was taken to open RT in Serbian, the European Union called on Serbia to respect the decisions of the European Union, including the restriction on Russian state media broadcasting.

Serbia has not imposed restrictive measures against Russia since the invasion of Ukraine, despite being urged to do so by Brussels because it is a candidate country for membership of the European Union.

A system against sanctions evasion is being set up

The European Union intends to create a so-called “sanctions evasion system” as part of new restrictive measures against Russia.

The preliminary list of new sanctions foresees the introduction of measures against entities or entities in those countries that violate the sanctions.

According to diplomatic sources, the draft prepared by the European Commission foresees that the first step in the anti-circumvention system will be to warn third countries that are doing so.

If the countries that have received a warning do not stop evading sanctions, the next step would be to impose restrictions on entities from those countries.