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What sanctions on 3 August 2018 targeted
Summary
A look back at US sanctions on a Russian bank and the EU measures on Crimean bridge builders that preceded them.
What did Western sanctions on Russia look like on 3 August 2018? On that day the United States imposed sanctions on a Russian bank that had facilitated a transaction for a North Korean on an American blacklist.
The measure came days after the European Union acted on a separate front. On 31 July 2018, the EU imposed sanctions on six Russian companies involved in building the bridge that links mainland Russia to the annexed Crimean peninsula.
The Crimea link
Russia invaded the Crimean Peninsula of Ukraine in February and March 2014, occupied it and then annexed it after what the background describes as an illegitimate referendum. The invasion marked the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian war. The bridge sanctions therefore targeted firms working on infrastructure tied to territory that Russia had annexed.
A separate story inside Ukraine
Also on 31 July 2018, a court ruling in Mykolaiv region removed the regional status of the Russian language there. That decision was a domestic Ukrainian matter, unconnected to the sanctions announced by Washington and Brussels.
Taken together, the reports from 31 July to 3 August 2018 show two Western actors using sanctions on Russian entities, one over a transaction involving a North Korean on a US blacklist and the other over the Crimean bridge, while a court in southern Ukraine ruled on language status.
