A Comparative Study On The Measures And Effectiveness Of US’s And European Sanctions Against Russia Since 2014

The legality of unilateral sanctions has always been controversial in international law,but the United States often uses it as an important tool to promote its global leadership and has established a set of rich “sanctions system” in practice,citing domestic laws.Since its own military power is not enough to protect itself from aggression,the EU has been taking sanctions as a key means to improve its discourse in international affairs.Although the EU opposes extraterritorial legislation,in practice it still imposes sanctions on other countries or individuals based on the “protection of human rights”.In international disputes,the success of sanctions often depends on the complicated political game between the initiator states and the sanctioned states,and it is difficult to reach a conclusion that whether the sanctions are useful or not in the short term.Since the outbreak of the Crimea crisis in 2014,the US,Europe and other western countries have imposed round after round of sanctions on Russia,involving various aspects of politics and economy.However,the sanctions have failed to calm the tensions between Ukraine and Russia,and on the contrary,the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has intensified due to Russia’s resolute resistance.In February 2022,the Ukrainian crisis escalated in an all-round way and the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out.The US and Europe clearly expressed their support for Ukraine and coordinated several rounds of sanctions against Russia.The speed and quantity of sanctions against Russia were rarely seen after the Cold War.Due to its high dependence on Russian energy,the EU has been unable to make up its mind to impose sanctions on Russia’s energy sector.However,after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict,the EU’s security concept was reshaped,and economic interests gave way to concerns about its own security.The EU began to impose sanctions on Russia’s oil and gas sector with a tough stance,in an attempt to crush the Russian economy by restricting Russia’s energy exports.But Russia has also developed a series of counter measures in response to Western sanctions to stabilize its domestic economy and maintain diplomatic relations with Asian countries,and the measures have been effective.As a result,although the sanctions from 2014 to 2022 did not seem to cause significant damage to Russia’s politics and economy,the sanctions after the Russia-Ukraine conflict in2022 inevitably caused a huge blow to Russia’s domestic economy,leading to a decline in people’s living standards.However,sanctions failed to end the conflict or undermine Russia’s domestic political stability.Instead,they encouraged “import substitution” for Russia’s continuous development of industry and agriculture,and actively promoted the construction of domestic payment system to prevent financial risks.Although the sanctions are effective from the actual situation,their backbiting effect has also caused a huge impact on the US and Europe themselves,while the EU,as the hardest hit area affected by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine,faces the dilemma of high inflation and great downward pressure on the domestic economy.At the same time,sanctions have also had a huge impact on the international community,causing a crisis of food shortage and insufficient energy supply,and pushing up international food and energy prices.It remains to be seen whether America and Europe’s harsh sanctions on Russia will ultimately achieve their goal,but China should see a crisis in this.Unlike Russia,China does not have huge energy reserves but has a large internal market and production capacity.In the current complex international environment,we must speed up efforts to promote internal circulation,improve the payment system,improve the legal system of obstruction,and work hard to build a fair and just new international political and economic order.