Absolute record. More than 10,000 international sanctions have already been imposed against Russia

Author

Lesia Solovchuk

Within two months since recognizing the independence of the so-called DPR and LPR and the outbreak of the invasion of Ukraine, more than 10,000 sanctions have been imposed against Russia. Great Britain imposed the greatest number of restrictions against Russia.

As of April 29, the total number of anti-Russian sanctions is 10,128, according to data from Castellum.ai, a global database for monitoring sanctions. Dozens of countries around the world applied 7,374 restrictive measures against the aggressor country during the invasion of Ukraine.

Also, until February 22, 2,754 sanctions were imposed against Russia — at that time, Iran was still ahead of Russia in terms of the number of penalties.

On February 21, the President of Russia announced the recognition of the LDPR sovereignty, and on February 24 he announced a special military operation in Donbas. These developments have become a trigger for timposing tough sanctions against Moscow by the Western world. Restrictions also intensified after the public disclosure of the facts of the atrocities committed by the Russian military in the temporary occupied territories.

What countries have imposed the greatest restriction against Russia

The biggest surprise about the sanctions came from European countries, historically cautious in dealing with Russia — they even surpassed the United States in terms of restrictions. An example of this is, in particular, the decision to expel some Russian banks from the SWIFT financial messaging system. Significant activity, along with Western countries, was also shown by Japan and Australia.

The top five countries that punished Russia the most during this time were the UK (1,124 sanctions since February 22), Switzerland — 1,103, the EU (942), France (931), and the USA (907).

Personal restrictions dominate in the common basket of sanctions — 6,379, followed by restrictions against companies and legal entities — 974, against vessels — 13, and aircraft — 3.

"Hooligans of the world". Who Russia has overtaken in number of sanctions

In terms of the number of sanctions, Russia has already overtaken Iran leading in restrictions for many years 2.6 times, and 50 times — Cuba.

The following countries remain the largest world "hooligans" along with Russia:

Iran — 3,616 sanctions,
Syria — 2,608,
North Korea — 2077,
Venezuela — 651,
Myanmar — 510,
Cuba — 208.

The total number of sanctions applied against these countries — 9,670 — will also be less than Russia's record at the end of April 2022.

The most interesting thing is that restrictions, for example, against Iran have been imposed for decades — mainly because of the nuclear program and support for terrorism. At the same time, the Russian Federation managed to take a height of 10,000 in just 2 months of the war, bombing Ukrainian cities without a break.

What sanctions are imposed against Russia

Until February 2022, a lot of U.S. sanctions against Russia prior to the war in Ukraine concerned interference in the 2016 elections and attacks on political dissidents in Russia and abroad, as well as the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Sanctions imposed since February 22 mainly target individuals — 6,171, compared to 974 imposed against legal entities, usually companies or government agencies.

Of the legal entities, Russian banks (Sberbank, VTB, and Novikombank), in particular, were sanctioned, and in a number of state-owned companies raising foreign capital was made difficult.

Key projects and economy segments affected by the sanctions:

The sanctions destroyed the Nord Stream 2 project, worth $11 billion;
Closed skies over European countries, which practically destroys air transportation in the Russian Federation;
A wave of restrictions on Russian oil, gas, and coal imports has begun;
Severe restrictions on public debt;
Limited import of Russian metals;
Restricted import of luxury items and some foodstuffs from Russia;
Restriction on the export of technologies to Russia;
Restriction on the export of technologies to Russia;
Russia's access to IMF and World Bank funds is limited;
The MFN status has been abolished;
Restrictions were imposed on correspondent accounts of the Russian banks;
The access of Russian banks to SWIFT is restricted.

According to the Russian statistical service X-Compliance, since the outbreak of the war, the number of sanctioned Russians has doubled. According to the service, from February 22 to April 22, Western countries updated the lists of sanctions against Russian persons involved 247 times.

The list of "penalized persons" included the senior representatives of the government, the State Duma, the General Staff, oligarchs from the inner circle of the RF President, his relatives, as well as Putin himself.

As a result of a tough sanctions policy, 2,432 individuals and legal entities, vessels, and aircraft from Russia have now been included in the lists of different countries. Including the number of Russian persons/entities under strict, so-called "blocking sanctions" amounted to about 2,000 by April 22.

More often, production, scientific, financial, and transport organizations were included in the lists of sanctions. Among the 357 operating Russian banks, 33 are directly included in the sanctions lists, 9 more are under sanctions risk according to the 50% Rule — another 9 affiliated with individuals and legal entities (managers, co-owners) — direct persons involved in the sanctions lists — 50.

According to the 50% Rule, applied under the OFAC (USA), EU, and UK sanctions lists, sanctions also apply to companies that are not directly included in these sanctions lists, but that are owned by the persons involved by 50% or more.

As of February 21, 2,347 Russian companies were at risk from this rule, while 2 months later, on April 22, 3,499 companies were already at risk.

Will sanctions stop Kremlin

The pressure on Russia is increasing day by day. The official Kremlin has already compared the flurry of restrictive measures with "robbery by unfriendly countries," however, it is forbidden by law to recognize the impact of sanctions in Russia.

Hundreds of international companies are leaving the country. Some of them leave the Russian Federation due to obligations under sanctions, others are "self-sanctioned" – that is, they decide to leave, even if they are not required to do so by law.

According to Peter Piatetsky, official in the Department of Treasury in the Obama and Trump administrations and Castellum.AI co-founder, the scope of the sanctions is comparable to a financial nuclear war.

"This is the largest sanctions event in history. Russia went from being part of the global economy to the single largest target of global sanctions and a financial pariah in less than two weeks," he stressed.

According to him, the sanctions against Russia demonstrate the exceptional unity of the United States and its allies in the face of Putin, their determination to use their economic strength to try to dissuade him from this unjustified war. However, there are many deterrents associated with the fact that Ukraine is not a NATO member.

According to the expert's forecast, sanctions against Russia will continue to increase, because Putin still does not stop hostilities.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced back in March that the US and its partners were "considering the prospect of a ban on Russian oil imports in a coordinated manner, after making sure that there are relevant supplies of oil on world markets." This process has already begun, and according to forecasts, it will become one of the most painful packages of sanctions against the Russian Federation.