Package defeat: the EU's sanctions policy has finally reached an impasse

The latest attempts to tighten EU sanctions against Russia have failed. This is evidenced by the increasingly complex process of approving restrictions, Vladislav Maslennikov, head of the Russian Foreign Ministry Department, told Izvestia. The EU still cannot agree on the 20th package of sanctions, although it planned to do so by February 24. Brussels claims that work on it is ongoing, but it is unclear exactly when it will be adopted. About how the sanctions policy leads to a split within the EU and how its costs, against the background of the escalating conflict in the Middle East, are hitting Europe, in the Izvestia article.

The EU's sanctions policy has reached an impasse

Brussels' constant stamping of new sanctions packages, the number of which has already reached the second ten since 2022, demonstrates the deadlock in the EU's sanctions policy, Vladislav Maslennikov, head of the Department of European Problems at the Russian Foreign Ministry, told Izvestia. According to him, the goals of the anti-Russian policy launched by Brussels back in 2014 have not been achieved, and despite the fact that the European Union is trying to convince the world community of the effectiveness of its illegitimate restrictions, the facts indicate the opposite.

— Brussels has failed and will not succeed in changing our country's approaches to the situation in Ukraine. Not everyone in the EU still understands that this is an impossible task, continuing to insist on the need to increase sanctions pressure on our country in order to force us to resolve the Ukrainian crisis without taking into account the key elements of the Russian position on this issue," the diplomat said.

According to various sources, by the middle of 2025, more than 24 thousand sanctions were imposed against Russia. According to experts, the effect of them is noticeable, but not critical. The Financial Times newspaper wrote that European experts are impressed by the resilience of the Russian economy to Western sanctions. By the beginning of 2026, Brussels had failed to undermine the Russian economy: GDP growth over the past three years was more than 10%, Maslennikov emphasizes.

— Import substitution processes are underway, exports are being reoriented to new markets, and new trading partners are being sought. Industrial production is growing. At the same time, the Russian national debt remains one of the lowest among developed economies — less than 20% of GDP," he noted.

For the EU, an attempt to tighten the sanctions policy leads to an internal split, Oleg Karpovich, head of the Department of the MGIMO Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry, said in a conversation with Izvestia. Europe failed to agree on the 20th package of sanctions against Russia by February 24.

"We see that the anti—Russian coalition is bursting at the seams, and the next aggressive steps of Brussels are capable of finishing it off," he added.

On February 23, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced that Budapest had vetoed the adoption of the 20th package of sanctions and the allocation of a €90 billion "military loan" to Ukraine. Skepticism about EU policy remains in Slovakia. Foreign Minister Juraj Blanard said: Bratislava is confident that during the negotiations on Ukraine, the adoption of new sanctions could negatively affect the peace process. Thus, for Russia, maintaining high energy prices in the world creates an additional "safety margin", while the EU risks finally losing its industrial potential in favor of the United States.

How sanctions are hitting the EU economy

Since 2022, Brussels' anti-Russian policy of curtailing ties with the Russian Federation has consistently dealt blows to the Europeans themselves. While the growth rate of the EU economy remains below the global average, its competitiveness is declining, and public debt is breaking all records, exceeding 100% of GDP in some member states, Vladislav Maslennikov said. According to him, in recent years, production in key industries in the EU has sharply decreased: chemical (by 10% in four years), steel, and automotive.

— This is not surprising, because in the conditions of abandoning Russian energy sources, European companies already have to pay 2-3 times more for electricity and 4.5 times more for gas than, for example, American companies. What is the result? The growing structural problems in the EEU economy, its de facto deindustrialization, fueled by the sanctions policy, make the European Union a less interesting and promising partner," the diplomat noted.

Such a policy by Brussels has already led to a serious decline in the competitiveness of the EU economy, in particular, due to rising energy prices, Inna Yanikeeva, a researcher at the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, told Izvestia.

As a result, European companies have seriously considered moving their production facilities to the United States, and some, such as Germany's BASF and Siemens Energy, have said they will invest in the U.S. economy rather than Germany. German giants Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and Bayer have also already launched the process of transferring production facilities to America.

Sanctions worries: EU sharply increased pressure on Central Asian countries for ties with Russia

Brussels is increasingly threatening the business of regional states

At the same time, the united Europe is losing not only competitiveness, but is rapidly losing its position in the world, Maslennikov emphasizes. The latter factor is confirmed by the EU's repeated attempts to confiscate Russian frozen assets. Such rhetoric did not go unnoticed in many capitals, where relevant conclusions were drawn regarding the negotiability and reliability of the EU.

"It seems that no one in Brussels or the capitals of the member states even thought that the very fact of publicly discussing the possibility of confiscating our assets had already damaged the EU's reputation as a 'safe haven' for foreign investors," Maslennikov added.

There are not many restrictive measures left in the EU's sanctions arsenal, but they still exist, even to the point of completely severing any ties with Russia, Inna Yanikeeva emphasized. In February, a proposal was made to impose a complete ban on the maritime transportation of Russian oil, as well as sanctions against 43 more naval vessels, a ban on the provision of maintenance services and other types of work for gas tankers and icebreakers. In the financial sector, the introduction of restrictions against a number of Russian regional banks, cryptocurrencies and companies trading them, platforms providing cryptocurrency trading, as well as blocking sanctions against a number of banks in third countries.

"Nevertheless, given that the announced sanctions were not adopted in February, this may indicate that the general commitment to increasing sanctions pressure on Russia is weakening, as new proposals begin to affect the interests of an increasing number of European states," the expert concluded.

How will the conflict in the Middle East affect the EU economy

After Israel and the United States launched a military operation against Iran on February 28, gas prices in Europe began to rise sharply. Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi stated that Tehran has no plans to block the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of the world's oil and LNG supplies pass. At the same time, Reuters writes that the ships were informed about the closure of the route, which led to a disruption of global trade.

At the same time, the level of gas reserves in European storage facilities dropped to 30%, which is one of the lowest figures for the end of February in recent times. The price of natural gas futures at the TTF hub in the Netherlands increased by more than 25% and peaked at €47.5 per 1 MWh, or about $592 per 1,000 cubic meters, according to data from the ICE Futures exchange at 17:00 Moscow time on March 2.

High energy prices will hurt the EU's competitiveness in the global market, as in the United States, for example, gas prices are significantly lower, Igor Yushkov, a leading analyst at the National Energy Security Foundation and an expert at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, explained to Izvestia.

— Any manufacturer, when thinking about where to place his plant, looks at the European market and sees that there are constant spikes in the cost of energy and gas, and looks at the same United States, where there are no such jumps. Therefore, of course, all this does not play in favor of the European economy," the expert said.

The price of Brent crude oil at the opening of trading on March 2 increased by 7-13%: at the moment the quotes exceeded $ 80 per barrel, then adjusted to $ 77-78. Reuters writes that in the future the price may rise to $ 100 per barrel. This growth will continue until ships can freely pass through the Strait of Hormuz, however, when this may happen remains unclear.

The media write that Brussels still cannot come to a consensus on how to respond to the war started by their ally in the United States. While some politicians, such as Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, have criticized the US aggression, many EU leaders remain silent. On the other hand, the authorities of Britain, Germany and France have threatened Iran with military force if it does not stop its attacks on their allies in the Middle East. Against this background, the topic of sanctions against Russia is expected to fade into the background.