Prosecutor Lyudmila Balandina and Judge Dmitri Gordeev ruled Maria Smorževskihh-Smirnova had "rehabilitated Nazism" by hanging banners of President Vladimir Putin on Narva Castle walls, comparing him with Adolf Hitler and calling him a war criminal.

Smorževskihh-Smirnova and her team hang the posters on May 9, Russia's Victory Day. They can be clearly seen from the border town of Ivangorod, where authorities put on a propaganda concert for residents of Narva across the river.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Margus Tsahkna (Eesti 200) said the sanctions show that politically motivated charges against Europeans result in immediate and direct accountability.

He said both Balandina and Gordeev are directly responsible for the judicial persecution of Smorževskihh-Smirnova, as well as of other representatives of civil society, the democratic opposition and human rights defenders.

"For years, both have contributed to the spread of Russian propaganda, the entrenchment of Putin's oppressive regime, and violations of freedom of expression and human rights, and the EU's decision to impose sanctions on them was the only right course," Tsahkna said.

"People who support and implement the Russian regime's cruel and authoritarian policies have no place in Europe," he added.

Under the EU sanctions regime established in May last year, individuals and entities responsible for serious human rights violations, or for the repression of civil society and the democratic opposition, as well as for undermining democracy and the rule of law in Russia, can be added to the list.

Estonia also imposed national sanctions on Balandina and Gordeev in October.

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