Connolly (2018:1): sanctions regime introduced in 2014 was the first time in the post-Cold War world that sanctions had targeted “a country as large and strategically important as Russia.” Initially, sanctions targeted the elite, but expanded to cover three main sectors: energy, defence, and finance. Sanctions became the primary Western means of influencing Russian foreign policy.
Connolly (2018:57-60): identifies at least five objectives of Western sanctions after 2014: to express disapproval of Russia’s annexation and provide diplomatic support to Ukraine’s leaders; to affirm the West’s commitment to the geopolitical status quo; to demonstrate Western unity in the face of Russian aggression; to inflict economic pain and thereby change cost-benefit calculations in Russian decision-making and perhaps even prompt a change in leadership; and to deter Russia from further aggressive action.
Connolly (2018:61): “Analytically, it is possible to separate the sanctions regime into two broad categories: Sanctions imposed in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea – “Crimea sanctions” – which tended to focus on individuals and the economic activity taking place on or in relation to Crimea, or on individuals deemed to have been involved in the political and military operation to annex the peninsula; and sanctions imposed in response to Russia’s military inter- vention in eastern Ukraine – “Donbas sanctions” – which shifted the focus toward companies and sectors of the Russian economy.