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Sanctions on Russia from Brussels and Washington
Summary
A look back at 3 August 2018, when the United States targeted a Russian bank days after the European Union penalised firms tied to the Crimea bridge.
What did Western pressure on Russia look like on 3 August 2018? It came in two steps, one from Brussels and one from Washington.
On 3 August 2018, the United States imposed sanctions on a Russian bank. Washington said the bank had facilitated a transaction for a North Korean who was already on an American blacklist. The measure was framed around that single transaction.
The EU step days earlier
The American action followed a European move on 31 July 2018. On that date the European Union imposed sanctions on six Russian companies involved in building the bridge that links mainland Russia to the annexed Crimean peninsula.
The Crimea backdrop
The bridge sanctions were tied to a territory Russia had taken from Ukraine. In February and March 2014, Russia invaded the Crimean Peninsula, occupied it and then annexed it after a referendum described as illegitimate. That episode came amid the uncertainty that followed Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, and it marked the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war.
Two measures, two rationales
The two sets of sanctions rested on different grounds. The European measure concerned construction work connected to Crimea. The American measure concerned a bank's role in a transaction involving a North Korean on a US blacklist. Together, they added to the sanctions pressure that Russian entities faced from Western governments in the final days of July and the first days of August 2018.
