Russia says the EU has burned through its leverage and can't stop now

Moscow is calling Brussels' bluff. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin said the European Union has "exhausted" its leverage over Russia, in an interview with TASS released on Sunday.

Pankin argued that EU member states now struggle to agree on sectoral restrictions, leaving the EU Council to do little more than grow its blacklists of individuals and legal entities. He described that pattern as the "structural impotence of the European bureaucracy" — a machine still grinding out anti-Russian measures mainly to save face, according to the interview.

The diplomat didn't stop at process complaints. He said the sanctions simply aren't working, and claimed they cause far more damage to the EU's own economy while undercutting global energy and food security.

Pankin also took aim at what he called "unilateral coercive measures" that bypass the United Nations Security Council, saying support for that position is growing around the world. He framed the EU's approach as a dead end that Brussels understands but won't admit.

The statement lands as another round of European restrictions targets Russian individuals and entities rather than whole sectors — a shift Moscow is happy to point at as proof that the bloc's options are narrowing.