Санкційна політика Євросоюзу як протидія масмедіа країни-агресора

Abstract

The publication is devoted to determining the specifics of the impact and level of effectiveness of modern sanctions and restrictive measures aimed at combating the spread of propaganda narratives of the Russian media as an aggressor country. With the beginning of the Russian Federation's full-scale armed invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the European Union significantly intensified the introduction of restrictive measures against the aggressor country. Russian mass media, as a criminal instrument of the aggressive foreign policy of the Russian Federation, also found themselves under sanctions pressure. With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, almost 1,150 foreign companies left the Russian advertising market, and in this segment, the share of budgets of companies resident in countries opposing the Russian war in Ukraine was 28 percent in the press alone, which in absolute terms exceeds 2.6 billion rubles. The situation in the online advertising market has also become more complicated, the main factor of which was the suspension of investments by Western advertisers (this was announced by PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, L'Oreal Groupe and many other brands). Also, sanctions pressure exerts and negatively affects the activities of all enterprises related to the publication and distribution of printed products. The EU Council's ban on the export to the Russian Federation of virtually all printing inks, coated paper, and printing equipment is aimed at this. Most of the items on the list are not produced in the Russian Federation at all, and replacing them with Chinese or Indian analogues turned out to be much more expensive (up to 80 percent). The deficit that arose in this way served as an impetus for the increase in the cost of printing services, for which the editorial offices, mostly subsidized, were not ready. In the situation that has developed as a result of sanctions, Russian mass media expect the authorities to zero out income tax and reduce value-added tax, and are turning to them for preferential lending, subsidies for the payroll fund, and relaxation in the regulation of alcohol and tobacco advertising. In order to preserve the controlled media as a component of the mechanism for implementing its domestic and foreign policies, the authorities are forced to meet these requests and beg, using budgetary opportunities. In the context of gradually increasing sanctions pressure, reduced advertising revenues, rising prices for information and printing services, and a shortage of advertising tools, the Russian media sphere requires ever greater budget allocations. A budget that today suffers from daily war expenses and solving many other problems related to the aggressive actions of the Russian leadership. This is what determines the effectiveness of the EU sanctions policy.