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Let’s Make Sanctions on Russia Actually Work —6 Key Steps to Make Russia Pay
What makes sanctions effective? The issue is hotly debated. And there is certainly disagreement. One way to show room for improvement is to see where the EU has learned from its mistakes when dealing with Russia and imposing sanctions on the country.
So, that’s what I thought I’d do in this blog post. I want to look at a number of areas where the EU has moved to make its sanctions on Russia more effective — and what it still can do.
Let me explain.
To simplify for the sake of brevity, the EU’s sanctions policy faces two prescient challenges.
The first boils down to implementation. European stakeholders believe this has given Russia ample time to adapt to the measures.
The second boils down to the precision of the sanctions, as recent sanctions have become broader in scope, shifting away from targeted measures.
This raises concerns about their impact on the general Russian population rather than directly on those responsible for the war.
The other problems with the sanctions are related to these.
For example, some of the implementation problems have to do with issues at the Member State level. That’s because each country is tasked with…
