Sanction Regimes as Global Governance Complexes: the Case of Post-2022 EU Energy Sanctions Against Russian Federation

Why has the EU introduced an embargo against some Russian energy industries after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine (such as coal and crude oil with petroleum products) while others remained outside the scope of the sanctions for a longer time and were partially sanctioned only later (LNG ) or still remain outside the scope of formal sanctions (civil nuclear industry)? In theoretical terms, the analysis will be focused on evolving complexity of sanctions regime as a joint outcome of sectoral structural conditions, window of political opportunities opened by Russian aggression and calculation of targeting effectiveness of specific sectoral restrictions. These factors defined the sequencing in layering sanctions regime and extent of adopted measures against four Russian energy industries: coal, oil and petroleum products, natural gas and liquid natural gas LNG, and civil nuclear industry. The main novelty of this study will be in analyzing the sanctions regimes as the Global Governance Complexes (GGCs) (Eilstrup-Sangiovanni 2022, Eilstrup-Sangiovanni and Westerwinter 2022) by bridging literatures on regime complexity (Raustiala and Victor 2004, Alter and Meunier 2009, Alter and Raustiala 2018, Alter 2022, Henning and Prat 2023) and on economic statecraft (Drezner 1999, Mastanduno 1999, Chan and Drury 2000, Blanchard and Ripsman 2013, Kirkham 2023 ).