UNA Europa Bachelor of European Studies Academic year 2023-24

INTRODUCTION TO EU LAW AND INTERNATIONAL LAW

Seminar 2: Sanctions

Dr habil. Marcin Marcinko (Jagiellonian University in Krakow)

Case Study: The Story of Drakkenia

Drakkenia was once a vast country located in Eastern Europe, ruled with an iron hand
by the Drakkenid dynasty, whose representatives led the country to ruin in the second half of
the 20th century, due to their lavish lifestyle and complete ignorance of investing in the
development of the economy. With the collapse of the bipolar system, the Drakken monarchy
also collapsed, and although the last descendant of the Drakkenid family died without leaving
an heir, and Drakkenia became a republic with a democratically elected president, it was unable
to regain its former glory. Until the end of the 20th century, its economic and social situation
only worsened – state-owned enterprises and factories declared bankruptcy, foreign companies
withdrew their capital, unemployment increased significantly, many citizens went abroad, and
the country struggled with growing public debt and hyperinflation. Additionally, in 2000, two
provinces of Drakkenia – Aglordia in the west and Tessudia in the south (once independent
states, conquered by Drakkenia in the 19th century) – took advantage of the weakness of the
central authorities, seceded and declared independence. The Drakken government was unable
to prevent this, so in bilateral agreements with each of its former provinces it agreed to peaceful
secession and designated the state border with each of the new states. However, the loss of
Tessudia meant no access to the Turquoise Sea, where the Drakken warships base was located
in the port of Dalthum. Dalthum became the city of Tessudia, but in the agreement with
Tessudia, Drakkenia negotiated the extraterritoriality of this naval base and its subordination to
the exclusive jurisdiction of Drakkenia.

Fortune smiled on Drakkenia in 2010, when extremely rich deposits of natural gas and
slightly smaller deposits of hard coal were discovered near the border with Tessudia. Both
natural resources began to be extracted very quickly. For this purpose, the state-owned company
DrakkenGas was established, and one of the richest citizens of Drakkenia, Jagnur Freikkerd,
became its president. The company was responsible for both the extraction and export of both
natural resources and turned out to be the proverbial “goose laying golden eggs”. Freikkerd
took advantage of the temporary crisis on the natural gas market and sold surplus gas to foreign

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contractors at a huge profit. The sale of hard coal also brought considerable profits, but there
was speculation that larger coal deposits were located in Tessudia, so the coal mined by
Drakkenia probably comes from the Tessudian deposits – underground tunnels leading from the
Drakken mines probably run under the border of both countries. However, when Tessudia sent
a diplomatic note asking for clarification on this issue, Drakkenia replied that this was an
interference in her internal affairs and she had no intention of explaining anything.

Drakkenia quickly grew rich from the sale of both natural resources, and Jagnur
Freikkerd gained considerable popularity among his compatriots, so he took advantage of this
popularity and in 2015 founded his own party – “Great Drakkenia” – which won the vast
majority of votes in the 2016 parliamentary elections. The party was able to establish a
government, with Freikkerd at its head. One of the first decisions of the new Prime Minister
was the announcement of the “restoration” of long-closed chemical plants in the country. “We
used to be the power of the chemical industry” – said the Prime Minister in his speech in
Parliament – “I promise you that we will rebuild this power soon!” In fact, already at the
beginning of 2017, some of these plants were restarted. However, it was no secret that in the
second half of the 20th century, Drakken chemical plants were capable of producing chemical
weapons. There was a risk that this production could be resumed, as indicated by the purchase
of missiles capable of carrying chemical weapons warheads (financed by DrakkenGas), and
since Drakkenia had signed and ratified in 2003 the Convention on the Prohibition of the
Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction 1,
the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) declared to the Drakken
government that it would like to inspect chemical plants. However, Prime Minister Freikkerd
did not agree to the inspection, and the next day Drakkenia withdrew from the Convention,
invoking its Article XVI para. 2. “The reconstruction and development of the chemical industry
is a key factor in the economic development of our country” – said the Prime Minister – “We
no longer want to be a party to the Convention because it threatens our vital economic interests
and national security.”

In 2018, Jagnur Freikkerd’s popularity enabled him to win the presidential elections,
and together with his party, they led to major changes in the constitution of Drakkenia, including
abolishing the multi-party system and limiting political freedoms. At the beginning of 2020, the
parliament subordinated to President Freikkerd announced the end of the republic and
introduced a monarchy, and elected the current president as king, who, under the name Jagnur

1
Text of the Convention – see: https://www.opcw.org/chemical-weapons-convention

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the Reviver, changed the constitution again, giving himself a number of powers – now the king
can issue legally binding decrees, appoints judges and elects the prime minister and individual
ministers. Former vice-president of DrakkenGas, Gerrein Loleth, became prime minister. His
first decision was to withdraw from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe2, in
accordance with its Article XIX – this time the Prime Minister invoked the clause of rebus sic
standibus, recognizing that the changes in the country are so fundamental that they require a
revision of its treaty obligations. Garren Thaureg, former president of the private security
company “Grey Wolves Inc.”, which protects facilities belonging to DrakkenGas, became the
Minister of Internal Affairs. Thaureg initiated a campaign of persecution of political opponents
– many oppositionists disappeared without a trace, some of them were sent to high-security
prisons, others – less dangerous to the new regime – were expelled from the country and
deprived of public rights.

After “sorting out” internal affairs, King Jagnur began to “regulate” relations with
neighbouring countries. For Aglordia, which became an EU member state in 2005, he
introduced a ban on the export of anything produced in this country. A special customs unit was
established to scrupulously check people crossing the border to see if they were trying to
smuggle goods from Aglordia, and any such attempts were severely punished. In 2021 and 2022
attempts were made against Aglordia’s public and financial institutions to disrupt their activities
through cyber-attacks – most of them were thwarted, but several such attacks resulted in the
blocking of online accounts of banks and state-owned enterprises, which resulted in serious
financial losses. Aglordia’s intelligence services have determined that the “Cunning Foxes”
hacker group is behind these cyberattacks and that its headquarters is somewhere in Drakken
territory. It was also determined that this group is headed by two hackers nicknamed Castor and
Pollux. It could not be determined whether the group had any ties to the Drakken government,
but attacks occurred between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. – i.e. during the working hours of Drakken
public offices.

Other measures have been taken against Tessudia, Drakkenia’s southern neighbour. In
late 2022, king Jagnur invited the president of Tessudia, Dragir Hyanns, to his seaside estate for
bilateral negotiations. It turned out that Drakkenia was demanding that Tessudia establish an
extraterritorial corridor (in the form of a highway and a railway) connecting Drakkenia with the
naval base in Dalthum. President Hyanns firmly rejected this demand, and king Jagnur became
furious. “If you do not agree to establish an extraterritorial corridor for us” – the king shouted

2
Text of the Treaty – see: https://www.osce.org/library/14087

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– “our bombers will raze your cities to the ground and your farmlands, of which you are so
proud, will burn! I am not joking!” However, President of Tessudia did not bend to these words
and the negotiations were broken off. The next day, king Jagnur summoned the ambassador of
Tessudia to his palace and told him that he had been declared persona non grata and had 24
hours to leave Drakken territory or he would be arrested for espionage. The ambassador knew
the king’s quick temper and did not delay his departure, but due to his haste he did not take all
the documents with him. Shortly after the ambassador’s departure, Minister Thaureg ordered
police officers to occupy the embassy building, search it and confiscate any archives and
documents found.

On the night of November 7-8, 2023, the residents of Dalthum were woken up by the
sounds of explosions and machine gun shots. A group of unknown perpetrators, masked and
dressed in black uniforms, attacked police stations and the city garrison, as well as key
administration buildings. The attackers managed to take over the attacked facilities and, thanks
to the help of the “Cunning Foxes” group, announced the establishment of the Republic of
South Drakkenia on the Internet. The perpetrators were well armed and trained – it soon turned
out that they were employees of the company “Grey Wolves Inc.”, and they were commanded
by Rurguli Groond, the current president of the company. The Drakken authorities claimed
neither command nor control of the group’s activities, but when Tessudia sent additional troops
to Dalthum, several Drakken warships sailed out of the naval base, fired warning shots, and
blockaded the Tessudian port. Then, President of Tessudia asked the UN Security Council to
convene an extraordinary meeting, and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs
and Security Policy also became interested in the events.

Please indicate the actions and behaviour (and also possible omissions) of Drakkenia and its
representatives constituting the basis for activating – respectively – UN sanctions and
restrictive measures of the EU, and then specify what types of sanctions/restrictive measures
can be applied to these actions, what entities can be targeted by these sanctions/measures, and
legally justify why the selected sanctions/measures were applied.

(More information about restrictive measures of the EU – see: