On 18 December 2023, the Council of the European Union imposed restrictive measures on Tsargrad TV Channel (Царьград ТВ) belonging to and financed by the so-called “Orthodox oligarch” Konstantin Malofeev, as a part of the twelfth Bundle of Sanctions focusing on a further group of 61 people and 86 entities in Russia answerable for actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence of Ukraine. On that event, the SPAS TV Channel of the Russian Orthodox Church was additionally put underneath EU sanctions.
Tsargrad TV Channel
Tsargrad TV Channel was created in 2015. Within the fall of 2017, Malofeev created the “Two-Headed Eagle,” which he outlined because the “society for the event of Russian Historic Enlightenment.” From the tip of 2017, it stopped broadcasting and utterly switched on-line.
In 2020, Tsargrad TV was blocked on YouTube as a consequence of violation of sanctions laws and commerce guidelines, as reported by Ukrainska Pravda. Earlier than that ban, Tsargrad TV had 1.06 million subscribers.
Tsargrad TV positions itself as a conservative info and analytical TV channel that covers occasions in Russia and the world from the standpoint of the Russian Orthodox majority within the spheres of Russia’s home and international coverage, geopolitics, worldwide relations, tradition, traditions, and faith. Amongst its goals, the promotion of monarchism and the historical past of pre-revolutionary Orthodox Russia.
Malofeev’s “Society for the Promotion of Russia’s Historic Improvement” is suspected by the USA of involvement in espionage in favor of Russia. The group, amongst different issues, advocates “the return of the Russian Empire to its historic borders.”
Tsargrad TV channel additionally turned identified for its harsh, and generally insulting, statements in opposition to different religions within the Russian Federation, in unison with the state coverage of limiting the freedoms of non-Orthodox religions and their members.
Alexander Dvorkin’s hate speech in opposition to Jehovah’s Witnesses and Scientology on Tsargrad TV
Commenting on the choice of the Supreme Courtroom liquidating and banning the actions of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia in 2017, Tsargrad TV wrote on 19 July 2017: “The Russian state has lastly realized that it isn’t solely the suicide assaults that pose a hazard to it, but additionally the prayer conferences of cults… The Jehovah’s Witnesses’ cult in Russia was lastly and irrevocably banned… Any more, stunted adherents of the heretical doctrine will not cling in pairs to passers-by or knock on the doorways of residences in multi-story buildings, asking the shocked Philistines whether or not they find out about God”
With regard to the Church of Scientology additionally liquidated by a court docket and banned in Russia, Tsargrad TV Channel calls it a totalitarian cult. On 7 June 2017, sooner or later after a wide-scale police crackdown on the Church of Scientology in St Petersburg, Tsargrad broadly opened its microphone and its columns to the Alexander Dvorkin, a member of the board of administrators of the worldwide anti-cult group FECRIS and its former vice-president for a few years, well-known for fueling hostility and hatred in direction of spiritual minorities, particularly of international origin.
Dvorkin was then quoted as saying: “As soon as, Time Journal revealed a big assortment of supplies on Scientology, underneath the final title: ‘Scientology is a cult of greed and energy.’ You possibly can’t say it higher!”
Based on Dvorkin, Scientology is a totalitarian cult and a menace to state safety as additionally it is a global intelligence service that collects details about everybody: “Particularly purposefully, Scientologists acquire details about politicians, present enterprise figures, safety forces and, in fact, in regards to the enemies of the cult in opposition to whom it fights with essentially the most dishonest, soiled and infrequently felony strategies. They usually purposefully acquire compromising info. And all the knowledge collected about every member of the cult, all his family and family members, everybody they point out, stays within the native Scientology group and can also be despatched to the Scientology headquarters in Los Angeles. All fundamental procedures of Scientology, throughout which info is extracted from an individual—the so-called auditing—are recorded underneath audio and video, typically with out the information of the particular person himself. As well as, since 1993, Scientology loved the particular patronage of the U.S. Division of State. It’s fairly cheap to imagine that the assist settlement that was concluded that yr contains the consent of Scientologists to supply a part of the collected info to the intelligence neighborhood of the USA.”
These statements on Tsargrad concerning the Church of Scientology and Jehovah’s Witnesses have been utterly consonant with the Kremlin’s coverage and coincided with the time when the FSB officers searched the central workplace of the Church of Scientology in Russia and inspected the Church of Scientology of St. Petersburg.
Sanctions in opposition to Tsargrad TV and Malofeev by the US, Australia, Canada, the EU, Japan, New Zealand, the UK and Ukraine
The rationale for the inclusion of the TV channel within the sanctions checklist of the European Union on 18 December 2023 was the dissemination of pro-Kremlin propaganda, justification of the Russian conflict of aggression in Ukraine, and funding by the Russian authorities.
The Spiritual Info Service of Ukraine (RISU) additionally emphasizes that the sanctions have been imposed for the truth that Tsargrad spreads disinformation and Russian propaganda in regards to the conflict in Ukraine, helps nationalist narratives, justifies the occupation of Ukrainian territories and the elimination of Ukrainian youngsters to Russia, together with their additional adoption. As famous, the TV channel additionally financially helps the aggression.
Based on the Telegram channel Christians In opposition to Warfare, Konstantin Malofeev helped pro-Russian separatists foment the conflict within the Donbas. Whereas all of Malofeev’s initiatives in Ukraine have been, formally, privately organized and funded, intercepted cellphone calls between him and his lieutenants on the bottom in Ukraine, in addition to hacked e mail correspondence, confirmed that he intently coordinated his actions with the Kremlin, at instances through the highly effective Orthodox Bishop Tikhon whom Malofeev and Putin (in their very own phrases) share as “non secular adviser.”
Konstantin Malofeev himself has been underneath US sanctions because the finish of 2014 in reference to the occasions in Japanese Ukraine. He’s additionally on the sanctions checklist of Canada.
On 20 April 2022, the USA launched a brand new bundle of sanctions in opposition to Russia, which included 29 people and 40 authorized entities, together with the Tsargrad TV channel. This was reported by the US Treasury. In its press launch, the US Treasury was saying “Russia-based firm Tsargrad OOO (Tsargrad) is a cornerstone of Malofeyev’s [sic] broad malign affect community. Tsargrad spreads pro-Kremlin propaganda and disinformation that’s amplified by the GoR. Tsargrad served as an middleman group between pro-Russian European politicians and GoR officers, and just lately pledged to donate greater than $10 million to assist Russia’s unprovoked conflict in opposition to Ukraine.”
US authorities additionally accused Konstantin Malofeev of making an attempt to bypass sanctions, because it was said by US Lawyer Basic Merrick Garland at a press convention on 6 April 2022. Garland stated the US Division of Justice confiscated “thousands and thousands of {dollars}” from an account associated to Malofeev. Based on the U.S. Lawyer Basic, Malofeev created a scheme that allowed media shops managed by the businessman to function in Europe. The founding father of Tsargrad can also be suspected of financing Russians who contributed to the separation of Crimea from Ukraine and its annexation by Russia.
On 2 September 2022, the Cupboard of Ministers of Ukraine adopted sanctions in opposition to the Russian propaganda Tsargrad Group of firms. This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Reintegration of Ukraine.
In February 2023, President Joe Biden’s administration seized Konstantin Malofeev’s belongings.
On 4 February 2023, the Ministry of International Affairs of Canada introduced the imposition of recent sanctions in opposition to Russia, underneath which the Russian TV channel Tsargrad fell for spreading disinformation and propaganda.
On 23 June 2023, the European Union permitted the eleventh bundle of sanctions in opposition to Russia. Among the many sanctions geared toward stopping the systematic worldwide marketing campaign of the Russian Federation to control the media, geared toward rising the destabilization of neighboring international locations licenses have been suspended for broadcasting 5 media sources, together with the Russian TV channel Tsargrad.
The EU identified that these media shops are underneath fixed direct or oblique management of the Russian management and have been used for fixed propaganda geared toward political events, particularly throughout elections, civil society within the EU and neighboring international locations, asylum seekers, Russian ethnic minorities, gender minorities and the functioning of the EU’s democratic establishments.
Nevertheless, based on the Constitution of Basic Rights, the restrictions imposed by the eleventh bundle of sanctions didn’t forestall the Tsargrad TV channel and its staff from finishing up actions within the EU, aside from broadcasting, equivalent to analysis and interviews.
The twelfth bundle of sanctions strengthened the restrictions imposed earlier. The belongings of sanctioned individuals are frozen, and EU residents and firms are prohibited from offering them with funds.
Because the EU Excessive Consultant for International Affairs and Safety Coverage Josep Borrell on the brand new restrictions in opposition to the Russian Federation: “On this twelfth bundle, we suggest a strong set of recent lists and financial measures that can additional weaken the Russian conflict machine. Our message is obvious, as I said once I chaired the casual International Affairs Council in Kyiv: we stay steadfast in our dedication to Ukraine and can assist its battle for freedom and sovereignty.”
Along with the US, the EU and Ukraine, different international locations—Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and the UK (UK)—imposed sanctions on Tsargrad TV channel and its proprietor, the Orthodox oligarch Konstantin Malofeev.
Article by Ievgeniia Gidulianova with Willy Fautré, initially revealed by BitterWinter.org
