Why did the EU sanction firms building the Crimea bridge?
A retrospective on the sanctions imposed on six Russian companies on 31 July 2018.
What did the European Union do on 31 July 2018 over the bridge linking mainland Russia to the annexed Crimean peninsula? It imposed sanctions on six Russian companies involved in building it.
The measure fell within Russia–European Union relations and targeted the firms by their role in the construction, rather than the project in the abstract.
The bridge connects mainland Russia to Crimea, which Russia occupied and annexed in February and March 2014 after a referendum described as illegitimate. That took place amid the uncertainty that followed Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity. The annexation marked the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian war, according to later accounts.
The sanctions on 31 July 2018 therefore tied the construction work to the broader dispute over the peninsula's status.
