title: Sanctions and Countersanctions
abstract: Abstract On March 18, 2014, President Putin signed a law that annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula to Russia. In response to the Russian invasion and annexation of Crimea and the ensuing war in the Donbas region of Ukraine, the United States, EU, and other Western governments introduced sanctions on major Russian state-owned firms and Russian politicians, media personalities, military commanders, and oligarchs close to Putin. In retaliation, Russia imposed the so-called countersanctions that bann