Economic Sanctions as an Instrument of Economic Diplomacy—The Case of the War Between the Russian Federation and Ukraine

Nowadays, there is a growing interest regarding the effects of economic diplomacy, as it has the proper means to strengthen cooperation between state and non-state actors, involved in international economic and commercial activities. However, economic diplomacy consists of a positive dimension, represented by activities such as promoting exports and attracting foreign direct investments, but at the same time a negative one, that involves imposing sanctions or export and import restrictions. Since the first empirical studies that have analysed the consequences of economic sanctions, authors expressed their scepticism on the effectiveness of this instrument, and the debates and opinions in favour and against enforcing economic sanctions continue these days. Nevertheless, empirical studies have revealed that these measures weaken the targeted country or entity. In the case of the current conflict between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, several states have progressively enforced restrictive measures as a repercussion of the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the military invasion of Ukrainian territory in 2022. The purpose of this article is to point out the main research studies that have focused on the impact of economic sanctions, highlighting, in particular, the recent findings on the Russian Federation, following the events in Ukraine. This paper is going to conduct a review of the quantitative and qualitative literature on the matter, in order to underline the role of economic sanctions as an instrument of economic diplomacy and to reveal their foremost effects.