What did EU sanctions on Crimea bridge builders mean?
A retrospective on the sanctions imposed on six Russian companies, reported in the days before 2 August 2018.
What did it mean when the European Union targeted the firms building a bridge to Crimea? The question hung over the days leading up to 2 August 2018, after the EU imposed sanctions on 31 July on six Russian companies involved in the construction of the bridge connecting mainland Russia to the annexed Crimea peninsula.
The measure was framed within Russia–European Union relations and aimed at the companies themselves, not at the structure alone. The bridge linked the Russian mainland with a peninsula that Russia had annexed.
The backdrop
The peninsula's status was the root of the dispute. In February and March 2014, Russia invaded Crimea, occupied it and then annexed it after an illegitimate referendum, amid the uncertainty that followed Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity. That invasion marked the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian war.
Looking back, the July 2018 decision was a step directed at firms working on the physical link to the annexed territory. Later assessments of the annexation described it as the first time since World War II that a European country had annexed part of another, and some analysts saw it as the start of a Second Cold War between Russia and the West.
