Sanctions against Russia have hit an unprecedented milestone

Russia has become one of the most sanctioned countries in the world since Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But just how bad has the situation gotten?

As of August 2024, data compiled by the information solutions project Castellum.Ai, a platform built by former regulators to help governments, policymakers, and corporations make risk decisions regarding sanctions, revealed the total amount of sanctions Russia was under.

Most people don’t think about the nations currently under sanction nor do they consider who is doing the sanctioning. However, the invasion of Ukraine brought sanctions to the forefront of public conversation after Russia was hit with some major sanctions. 

In a matter of weeks, Russia became one of the most sanctioned countries in the world and the situation has only gotten worse as the conflict has continued. However, figuring out sanctions levied against Moscow isn’t an easy task for the everyday person. 

Figuring out which countries are under sanction and why can take a lot of time, which is why analysts from Castellum.AI have gathered all of the data into a readable dashboard that tracks the number of sanctions Russia is suffering from as a result of its war. 

The information is updated frequently and gets its data from several primary sources that include governmental and non-governmental consisting of roughly 900 watchlists or issuing authorities. This data covers over 200 different nations according to Casellum's website. 

Using this data, Castellum has provided detailed numbers on the sanctions that have been levied against Russia and six of the world’s other most sanctions states. This data shows that Russia is the most sanctioned country by an extremely large margin. 

As of August 2nd, 2024, Russia has had 22,230 sanctions levied against the country since 2014 with the majority of that number coming into effect after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Moscow had 2,695 sanctions levied prior to the invasion and 19,535 after February 2022. 

The United States issued the largest amount of sanctions against Russia with 4,869 and Canada came in second, issuing 3,176 sanctions against Moscow. Australia, Japan, the UK, France, and the European Union were also among the top issuers. 

Surprisingly, Switzerland has imposed the third-largest number of sanctions (2,753) against the Russian Federation since 2014. This is of particular note since the country is portrayed as one of Russia’s most important partners on the European continent.  

But just how bad are Russia’s sanctions compared to the other top-sanctioned countries in the world? You might think a country like Iran was the world’s most sanctioned nation, and you would have been right prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

According to Castellum.AI, Iran had a total of 3,616 sanctions imposed against it before February 22nd, 2022, and 1,634 after. As of August 2024, Iran had a total of 5,250 sanctions issued against the country, which means Russia currently has 16,980 more sanctions. 

“Before the invasion of Ukraine, Iran was by far the most-sanctioned state in history, with 3,616 active sanctions by the United States, the United Nations, the EU, and countries like Australia, Canada, India, and Israel,” Statista’s Florian Zandt wrote in his breakdown of the sanctions in an earlier review. 

Syria is the next most sanctioned country according to Castellum.AI with a total of 2,753 sanctions. The Carter Center wrote in a September 2020 brief that the United States has imposed some sanctions against Syria since the 1970s. 

However, Statista noted that the majority of sanctions that surround Syria today are due to the events that surround the country’s civil war that began in 2011. Clashes between the president’s forces and those of rebel groups resulted in 22 million displaced people. 

Coming in fourth on the list created by the analysts at Castellum.AI was North Korea with 2,207 active sanctions, followed by Belarus with 1,499, Myanmar with 1,009, and Venezuela with 748. However, the data isn’t totally complete. 

It’s important to note that Castellum.AI hasn't included sectoral sanctions that fell under things like general embargos. However, the data provided does give a good overview of the active sanctions being imposed on some of the world’s worst political actors.