On May 20, 2025, the European Union (EU) took an unprecedented step: for the first time, German citizens and journalists were targeted by sweeping sanctions as part of the EU\u2019s 17th sanctions package against Russia. Those affected include Berlin-based Turkish-Kurdish journalist and German citizen H\u00fcseyin Do\u011fru, founder of the media platform Red Media, as well as German-born journalists Alina Lipp and Thomas R\u00f6per, who live in Russia.<\/p>\n
H\u00fcseyin Do\u011fru [Photo by LCM \/ youtube]<\/p>\n
The sanctions against Do\u011fru include the freezing of all bank accounts, an EU-wide travel ban and a de facto professional ban. This means that Do\u011fru is forbidden from engaging in any form of paid employment or self-employment, and no one is legally permitted to provide him with any economic resources. In practice, even inviting him for a coffee would constitute a criminal offence.<\/p>\n
The WSWS has reported on the\u00a0Red Media ban<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to the EU\u2019s justification, Do\u011fru\u2019s reporting on the Palestine solidarity movement in Germany \u201csows ethnic, political and religious discord\u201d and thus aids \u201cRussia\u2019s destabilising activities.\u201d<\/p>\n Not only Do\u011fru\u2019s bank account but also that of his pregnant wife has been frozen, even though she is not named on the sanctions list. Do\u011fru can access only a minimal subsistence allowance after weeks of approval by the Bundesbank (German Federal Bank). His freedom of movement has been curtailed, and he cannot legally be employed as a journalist\u2014for instance by\u00a0junge Welt, which enquired about hiring him\u2014because, according to the German Economics Ministry, such employment would violate the EU\u2019s \u201cprohibition on making funds available\u201d and would constitute a criminal offence.<\/p>\n On September 3, 2025, Do\u011fru announced on X that the EU Council had rejected his lawyers\u2019 appeal against the sanctions. He also published the \u201cevidence pack\u201d used to justify the measures, which consisted solely of a few tweets from his personal X account and from Red Media.<\/p>\n The NachDenkSeiten\u00a0website confirmed via an EU source that these tweets were indeed the only \u201cevidence\u201d cited.<\/p>\n The posts in question are fully protected under freedom of expression. One discussed NATO\u2019s recruitment of former officers in Hitler\u2019s Wehrmacht (Army) such as Adolf Heusinger; two others criticised Chancellor Friedrich Merz\u2019s militarist rhetoric; others commented on the \u201cneoliberal disaster\u201d of German reunification, reported on pro-Palestinian demonstrations and far-right marches in Germany, and covered protests against racist pogroms in Britain.<\/p>\n One tweet criticised the indifference of mainstream journalists, unions and press associations toward his case. Others referred to a Bundestag (parliamentary) resolution that could strip citizenship from those who criticise Israel and to racist remarks by a German MP, and expressed opposition to the Ukraine war, German rearmament and the poor living conditions of Ukrainian refugees. Red Media\u2019s surveillance by the domestic intelligence agency was also mentioned.<\/p>\n