Criminal liability for circumventing anti-Russian sanctions should be regarded as a natural part of sanctions policy; however, its practical application will require time due to the legal complexity of such cases. Under these circumstances, alongside creating mechanisms to punish violations of restrictions, the West needs to strengthen multilateral sanctions more quickly and physically obstruct the shipments that are still continuing.
This was stated in an exclusive extended interview with the Guildhall news agency by Saskia Kluit, a member of the Senate of the Netherlands (GreenLeft) and of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
According to her, “we did not impose sanctions for no reason,” therefore “it is also very important to introduce punishment for people who circumvent these routes.” She noted that she considers this “a natural part of sanctions policy.”
At the same time, the expert pointed to the difficulty of implementing such measures in practice. “From a legal point of view, it is very difficult to ensure that people are held accountable,” she said, adding that in her country attempts had already been made to hold companies accountable, but that “it takes a lot of time.”
In her assessment, introducing criminal liability will not produce an immediate result. “I would not expect this to help tomorrow already. This is the reality of the judicial system,” she emphasized.
In this regard, the expert noted the need for parallel steps. According to her, it is necessary to “work more quickly on multilateral sanctions” and to “physically obstruct those shipments that are still continuing.”
She also stressed that increasing pressure should begin as early as possible. “The sooner we start, the sooner we will achieve the goal,” she said, recalling that the war is already in its fourth year.
Earlier, the United Kingdom authorized the interception of sanctioned Russian tankers in its territorial waters, including the English Channel, in order to limit Russia’s oil revenues for waging war against Ukraine. London also expects to complicate the operations of Russia’s “shadow fleet,” which is used to circumvent sanctions.
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