Tech sanctions: large holes in the net

How effective are the sanctions imposed by the EU and Western countries on the Russian Federation to force the country to leave Ukraine? Everyone involved was aware from the outset that these can never be 100% effective – but there are particularly glaring loopholes when it comes to hardware and software.

At the heart of the EU’s technology sanctions against the Russian Federation are two components: First, the Dual-Use Regulation, which was revised only last year and places certain goods under a licensing regime. The other is the actual sanctions, which are used to specifically target actors that the EU considers to be partly responsible for Russia’s war against Ukraine. Unlike US sanctions, for example, both instruments are used exclusively on EU territory. But do the measures have any effect at all?

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