July 13 (Reuters) - The European Union on Monday broadened sanctions against Russia to include individuals ‌and entities responsible for cybercrime and human ‌rights violations, naming popular social media app VKontakte among them.

• ​VKontakte and its daughter company Communication Platform LLC were added to the list for their role in developing and managing the MaxApp for Russian smartphones, under ‌the supervision of ⁠the FSB security agency.

• The app is pre-installed on all mobile devices sold ⁠in Russia.

• EU countries said MaxApp was used for repression of critics of Russia's war against Ukraine and ​of people ​who posted other ​content banned by authorities.

• ‌Restrictive measures were also imposed on Citadel, VAS Experts and Norsi-Trans - companies that manufacture, develop, and sell hardware and software related to a surveillance system that monitors phone calls, emails, text messages, and ‌social networks.

• The EU said ​this network targets journalists, opposition ​figures, minority groups, ​and ordinary citizens.

• The EU also ‌imposed sanctions on officers from ​Russia's military ​intelligence service GRU, cybercriminals and companies that it said were active in Russia's efforts to ​destabilise Europe.

• ‌It also accused the FSB of controlling "a variety ​of cyber threat groups".

(Reporting by Bart Meijer, ​editing by Andrei Khalip)