S ince Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the European Union has projected itself as the moral compass of the democratic world—architecting what it calls the most comprehensive sanctions regime ever assembled against a major economy. For Brussels, sanctions have served not only as a policy tool but as a marker of Western resolve, an assertion that democratic values can be defended through coordinated economic pressure.

Three years later, however, a closer look reveals an uncomfortable truth: Europe’s sanctions architecture is less principled than advertised. While the EU continues to exhort others—particularly large developing economies—to curtail their engagements with Russia, its own record reflects a system designed as much to protect European economic interests as to puni

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