The EU needs a coherent strategy on Russian sanctions

This week, the European Union opted to extend sanctions on some 1,800 Russian companies and individuals for another six months, but it also lifted sanctions on three wealthy individuals. Alongside this, a recodification of the rights of member states which means that, in the name of preventing ‘exports’, individual Russian travellers’ cars, phones and even toiletries can be seized on entry. These decisions have raised a predictable storm.

The three lucky Russians whose sanctions were lifted are the billionaire Farkhad Akhmedov and businessmen Grigory Berezkin and Alexander Shulgin, all of whom had been put under restrictions for their links to the Kremlin. (A fourth man, Colonel Georgi Shuvaev, was also taken off the list, but as he had already died, this is likely of limited relief for him.)

The EU does not give reasons for these decisions. But Shulgin, for example, who had previously been chief executive of Ozon – often described as ‘Russia’s Amazon’ – had just won a case at the European Court of Justice, which had found insufficient evidence that he remained an influential businessman when he stepped down.