Measures so far have not induced Moscow to stop the war in Ukraine. Will fresh sanctions finally halt Putin’s advance?
EU officials are meeting their US counterparts to discuss what could be the first coordinated transatlantic sanctions against Russia since Donald Trump returned to the White House. The US president, who has previously stepped back from financial threats to Russia, has this week said he is ready to move to a second stage of sanctions. Their form, if they were to come, is however not yet clear.
Since Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Kyiv’s western allies have sanctioned more than 2,500 people and entities, including Putin himself, ministers, oligarchs, military commanders, propagandists, state and private companies aiding the war. Soon after the Russian tanks rolled in, western allies froze an estimated $335bn (€300bn) of Russian central bank assets; cut many Russian banks out of the international financial system via a ban on use of the Swift messaging service; froze sales of military equipment or anything that could be repurposed for making war; ended exports of numerous consumer goods and – eventually – banned imports of Russian diamonds.
