Over half of the names the EU added to its sanctions in October are aimed at the production chain of the ballistic missiles now targeting Ukrainian cities, chief diplomat Kaja Kallas said. The list of 826 Russian companies and 743 of their chief executives is the EU’s largest-ever set of military-industrial listings. 

A couple of days later, the Council added 12 more names for helping Russia evade sanctions, among them oil intermediaries in the United Arab Emirates and India. 

Yet October avoided the politically difficult decisions. No new sector-wide trade ban, and nothing on oil or gas.  

Europe has two problems with its Russia sanctions: any one of the bloc’s 27 members can insist that its special interests are protected, and the rules already agreed are enforced unevenly. 

July showed how the first problem works. The package passed only after Greece secured an exemption allowing EU operators to carry Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) to third countries under pre-invasion contracts. A proposed ban on Russian fish imports was dropped along the way. 

Every sector-wide measure affects businesses among the 27 members. Every capital has a veto. 

Even a list of sanctioned individuals has owners. Estonia, among the bloc’s toughest on Moscow, asked for a Russian company and one individual to be removed from the October draft because it supplies rare earths.