Rigidity of the EU Sanctions Against Russia: the Ontological Security Prism

The EU sanctions against Russia and their harshness surprised both practitioners and scholars alike. Today’s academic and policy discussion assesses the consequences of sanctions for the EU, Russia and their relations, as well as examines institutional and normative aspects of sanctions’ adoption and implementation. In this context the article aims to formulate on the basis of the ontological security concept two underestimated factors that lead to the rigidity of the EU’s sanctions against Russia. The first one is linked to the EU identity, to the myth of integration as a project of peace and values promotion. Sanctions become an instrument, which helps the EU to preserve its identity by fencing away those who do not agree. The second factor is linked to the ontological security of EU citizens. Here sanctions allow the EU to securitize economic recession, immigration and some other aspects, to put the blame for them on Russia, which eases the feeling of ontological insecurity among citizens. As a result of such articulation, some structural changes take place both inside the EU and in its external relations. Firstly, the elite and the grassroots reconcile; for both groups sanctions become a way to guarantee security. Secondly, institutional changes that cement sanctions are legitimized. Finally, sanctions become the EU instrument for structuring the global space around, and dividing it into the large spectrum of like-minded partners, and others. Two factors demonstrate that there is little likelihood that the EU would lift the sanctions in the medium-term perspective since it would increase its ontological insecurity.