The EU’s Approach to Sanctions on Russia: A Critical Analysis of the Existing Literature

This article focuses on the EU's sanctions against Russia, which were adopted in several rounds after Russia’s aggressive actions against Ukraine in 2014 and 2022. This article reviews and critically examines the existing academic works on this topic. In particular, it identifies, distinguishes and analyses five types of the existing scholarship, each of which relies on a different explanatory perspective on why the EU has adopted its sanctions against Russia. These are: (1) convergence of normative views within the EU, (2) national preference-based bargaining, (3) emotional resonance and (dis)trust in relation to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, (4) the EU’s ambition to be an active political-security actor and (5) threat perception of the EU’s geographical proximity with Ukraine. Additionally, the article reviews the debates on the (in)effectiveness of the EU’s sanctions on Russia. Although the extant literature offers different perspectives and has been expanding, there are still some gaps in the existing scholarship, which are also discussed in the article.