Forbes reported that the United States Sanctions have absolutely affected Russian oil companies and their investors. Since Washington imposed the sanctions in July and September, the market cap of Russia’s most powerful oil and gas companies has steadily eroded.
Sanctions began in March after Russia annexed Crimea, then a piece of Ukrainian real estate in the Black Sea. Crimea’s local government voted for secession on March 16, 2014 and Moscow agreed to welcome them back to the Fatherland on March 17. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, said the annexation was illegal because it broke Ukrainian constitutional law.
But in the early days, when the West were protecting their new Ukrainian friends, sanctions targeted individuals and not companies. If a company was targeted, it was privately held. In April of last year, the U.S. Treasury Department warned that sectoral sanctions were likely if Russia did not stop backing separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.
The European Union, dependent to some degree on Russian natural gas, was slow to change its targeted sanctioned regime. The U.S. was quicker, going after the oil and gas companies in July and expanding the list in September. The E.U., reluctantly, followed suit.
