The figure of 1600 sounds impressive — that's how many new entities from Russia's military-industrial complex Kaja Kallas is proposing to add to the sanctions list. But behind this number lies a far more interesting story: the EU has recognized that its old sanctions model is breaking down, and is scrambling to come up with a new one.
The problem is not in Moscow, but in Athens
The July sanctions package revealed a weak point in the system more clearly than any Russian propaganda could. The adoption was not blocked by pro-Russian Hungary, but by Greece — over its own profitable gas transportation business. One country, one narrow economic interest — and the entire package gets delayed by a week of negotiations.
This is the real story: the EU adopts sanctions unanimously, meaning each member state has veto power. The larger the package, the more points in it that someone can latch onto — not for ideological reasons, but purely for business ones.
The Latvian recipe: smaller, but faster
Latvia's Foreign Minister Baiba Braže proposes breaking the large package into parts. Instead of waiting for dozens of agreed points to accumulate, introduce sanctions immediately once a specific segment is ready — ballistic missiles, cryptocurrency, a particular bank.
Whenever we have an ecosystem ready for sanctions, as soon as we have it, let's just impose sanctions. We need to be faster
The logic is simple: a small package is harder to block because there's nothing for outside demands to latch onto. But this changes the very nature of the EU's sanctions process — from rare "major events" to a constant conveyor belt of decisions.
Leipzig as a pretext, not a cause
Germany's accusation that Russia was behind a hybrid attack at Leipzig airport provided the political impetus for a new round of sanctions. But according to Euractiv, the real reason for rethinking the approach is not one attack, but accumulated fatigue with a procedure that can no longer keep pace with the tempo of escalation.
Notably, even the renewal of the existing sanctions list of 3000+ persons for 12 months instead of the usual six months is currently blocked by only one country — Slovakia. This is a smaller obstacle than the Greece situation in summer, but the very fact that any single state can slow down the process remains a structural vulnerability.
What this means for Ukraine
Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga emphasized at the meeting something that Brussels finds hard to ignore: "Europe may think it is not at war with Russia, but Russia does not see it that way." For Kyiv, the question is not about the number of sanctioned persons, but whether the EU will develop a mechanism capable of responding to escalation faster than once every six months.
The EU's goal remains to adopt a new package in October. If by that time the bloc has not agreed to transition to a "thematic" approach, the next large list with 1600 names risks getting stuck in the same negotiations as the previous one — just with a different country playing the role of brake.
