Due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, international sanctions have been imposed on the Russian Federation in recent weeks. International sanctions can be described as a set of restrictive measures designed to maintain or restore international peace and security. International sanctions can be issued, for example, on the level of the United Nations or the European Union. The key sanctioning provisions on the EU level are then issued in the form of a Council Decision or EU Council Regulation and are gradually supplemented with new measures. Both of these forms of European legislation are directly legally binding for all Member States and contain several forms of sanctions regimes against the Russian Federation.

The situation with international sanctions are changing very quickly, the EU having announced already four major packages of sanctions against the Russian Federation and Belarus since February. In addition, several less comprehensive measures have been adopted. Below we summarise the basic principles and information on the correct application of sanctions: