The EU has imposed sanctions against VK and the Max messenger Brussels believes that they help the FSB monitor Russians and suppress the opposition

On July 13, 2026, the European Union expanded the sanctions lists to include the holding VK and the Communication Platform company, which is developing the Russian state messenger Max. This decision was part of a large-scale update of the lists, which affected about 250 individuals and legal entities.

What exactly are VK and Max developers accused of?

According to the documents of the EU Council, the Max messenger and the VK holding itself have become tools for repression against civil society in Russia. The main claims of Brussels are as follows:

Control by special services: The development of the Max, according to the EU, was carried out under the direct control of the FSB.

Spying on users: The app has a wide range of monitoring features: it can track usage VPN, collect data about the user's installed apps, contacts, and location.

Data Transfer: VK has been accused of providing the authorities with data on users who criticize the war in Ukraine or publish other "prohibited" content. The EU notes that the information collected has already been used to persecute citizens - for example, in the case of Ivan Kazhan.

Unfair competition: The Russian authorities promoted Max while restricting the work of global giants like WhatsApp and Telegram.

Who else was hit?

In addition to the IT giant, structures related to cyberattacks fell under the sanctions of the EU and the UK. London imposed restrictions against 10 project employees "Rybar", accusing them of misinformation and election interference. The sanctions also affected the Kazan company ML.Cloud, which is believed to be involved in providing infrastructure for hacker groups (such as LockBit and EvilCorp).

Irony with public procurement

The situation looks especially remarkable against the backdrop of recent news about the purchase of equipment from VK. In June 2026, it became known that the holding had allocated almost $3 million for the purchase of about 1200 Apple MacBook Laptops (including flagship models based on M5 Max processors). The company called this "standard practice" for testing products, despite the fact that Apple finally removed all VK apps from its store on June 25, 2026, citing compliance with sanctions.

What does this mean for users?

The VK holding itself says that the new restrictions will not affect the operation of their services in any way.

• Applications: Those that are already installed on the iPhone will continue to work, but it will no longer be possible to update them through the App Store.
• Push notifications: Owners of Apple devices will stop receiving notifications from VK services.
• Blocking abroad: In some EU countries (for example, in the Netherlands and Lithuania), providers have already begun to block access to VKontakte and Zen, citing European directives.

On the Russian stock market, news of sanctions caused a drop in VK shares - the company's securities fell by more than 1.6% at the moment, updating historical lows.

What happens to SSL security certificates?

VK's technical isolation has also affected the basic security infrastructure: the IT community is discussing that the certification authority GlobalSign Starts Revoking Security Certificates (SSL) at the holding's resources. This decision is associated with a change in GlobalSign's position on compliance with the international sanctions regime.

The revocation of SSL certificates usually leads to browsers starting to mark sites as "Unsafe" or block access to them altogether. This may create serious difficulties for users of the web versions of VK services and become an additional argument for the Russian authorities in favor of switching to "domestic" encryption certificates.

IMPORTANT. Advertising in Europe of VK services and the MAX messenger violates EU sanctions legislation. Bloggers advertising sanctioned services may have problems in Europe, from blocking accounts to administrative and criminal liability.