EU Prolongs Sanctions Against Russia

Protestors in rebel-controlled Donetsk, Ukraine demand implementation of the Minsk Agreements. (EPA/Alexander Ermochenko)

The European Union will formally prolong sanctions and individual restrictive measures against 170 Russian officials and Russian-backed Ukranian separatists in addition to 44 Russian entities. These punitive measures will now extend to March 15, 2020, according to a statement released by the Council of the European Union on September 11.

The measures consist of visa bans, asset freezes, travel restrictions, and bans on business activity in Crimea. People on the sanctions list include Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, armed forces head General Valery Gerasimov, Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov, and state TV presenter Dmitry Kiselyov. The entity list is dominated by Russia-backed battalions operating in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions and the Crimean Peninsula, as well as Crimean corporations.

The EU asserts in the statement that certain new measures could be lifted if Russia were to respect the peace agreements concluded in 2015. 

The 28-state bloc first imposed sanctions on Russia in March 2014 when Moscow seized control of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula following an illegal independence vote. These restrictive measures have grown over the subsequent years as Moscow continues to back separatists in eastern Ukraine. 

In March 2015, the European Council linked restrictive measures to Russia’s failure to comply with the Minsk agreements, a 13-point initiative that begins with a ceasefire and the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front lines. Moscow has thus far disregarded the Minsk agreements, and, as a result, the EU has extended economic sanctions against Russia every six months. 

A wide array of political figures and scholars have claimed that the EU’s economic sanctions are an effective way to curb Russia’s influence. At the Krynica Economic Forum on September 5, Pavel Luzin, a Russian political scientist and senior lecturer at Perm University, argued that the EU's continuous economic sanctions against Russia will create motivation for the Russian government, as well as for the Russian public, to come to a long-term settlement of the Donbas crisis.

At a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Polish President Andrzej Duda also confirmed his support for the European policy of sanctions against Russia  until the territorial integrity of Ukraine is restored.

Arseni Sivitski, director of the Center for Strategic and Foreign Policy Studies, a Belarusian think tank, believes the EU’s economic sanctions should be even harsher. 

“If we want to make [sanctions] more efficient, Russia will have to lose 1.5 percent GDP,” Sivitski argued, citing Russia’s expulsion from the SWIFT financial mechanism as a measure with potential to massively impact the Russian economy.

While the EU has imposed increasingly restrictive measures against Russia, little tangible progress has been made toward the realization of the Minsk agreements. Although the worst of the violence has abated, there is no guarantee of peace in the coming future.