EU SANCTIONS POLICY AS A COUNTERMEASURE OF RUSSIAN IMPERIALISM

Abstract

The significance of the sanctions policy of the European Union in countering modern Russian imperialism is investigated. The purpose of the article is to study the restrictive measures, or sanctions, of the European Union as a tool for the implementation of its Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and to describe the EU sanctions policy as a means of combating the imperial foreign policy of the Russian Federation in 2014–2023. Relying on the institutional approach and methods of foreign policy analysis, analysis of regulatory legal acts, and the historical method, the normative and organizational foundations of the EU sanctions policy are revealed, the functions of the main actors of foreign policy decision-making and the content of sanctions measures against Russia are analyzed, and the chronology of the introduction of sanctions against it is highlighted. The features of the functioning of the EU foreign policy mechanism for the development, adoption and implementation of restrictive measures are characterized. The dependency of the EU sanctions policy on the goals of its Common Foreign and Security Policy has been established. The main attention is paid to the restrictive measures of the European Union against the Russian Federation in response to its violation of the state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. It is concluded that the EU sanctions against Russia are complex in nature, including individual sanctions, diplomatic restrictive measures and sectoral sanctions directed against the financial, trade, energy, transport, technology and militaryindustrial sectors. Despite Russia’s resilience to the challenges posed by the sanctions imposed against it, they threaten to stagnate the economy, which may lead to a lack of resources for conducting expansionist policies and realizing its imperial ambitions.