Legitimacy of anti-Russia sanctions and response measures within the membership in the WTO

Objective: to determine the degree of legitimacy of the imposed anti-Russian sanctions and retaliatory measures from the point of view of theWorld Trade Organization, to assess the prospects of a possible recourse to the dispute settlement body.Methods: this goal is achieved through both general and special scientific methods. The general scientific methods, used by the author, include induction, deduction, systematic method, synthesis and generalization. The author uses formal legal method for the interpretation of the law. In addition, the historical method is applied to the study of the history of economic sanctions.Results: it was concluded that formally the imposed sanctions conform to the right of the World Trade Organization, though the provision that stipulates them is very extensive. In addition, it is argued that Russia's response can be justified by the same provision as the anti-Russian sanctions, but at the same time, the Russian position is more advantageous due to a number of other provisions of the World Trade Organization. It is also concluded that the positive prospects of resolving the conflict in the framework of the dispute settlement body are unlikely.Scientific novelty: the article studies the law of the World Trade Organization and the national legislation of the parties to the conflict on the research question, analyzes a wide range of domestic and foreign scientific works, and proposes the author's definition of economic sanctions, which refers to the set of actions of restrictive nature in the framework of economic activities, used by one party (the subject of sanctions) against another (the target) and aimed at forced correction of their political course.Practical significance: the basic provisions of the article can be used in the research activities on the legality of anti-Russian economic sanctions and retaliatory measures within the right of the World Trade Organization. In addition, the work may be of interest to practitioners and students of international law.