The following bachelor’s thesis analyses the arguments used by France’s state officials when justifying the recent sanctions against Russia. More specifically, it examines the following: (1) How the French government officials did justify the sanctions against Russia upon the invasion of Ukraine? (2) Are these justifications norm-based, material interest-based or both? And finally, (3) how did the justifications given by the government evolve in time in response to increasing economic losses by France as well as increasing security threats? That is in order to possibly identify a shift within the justifications. In answering these questions, we have used statements from relevant state officials when they are justifying for or against the sanctions. This is a single critical case study with a qualitative approach. Through the analysis of statements from the French government officials, the argument is that the justifications for the sanctions tended to be either norm-based or material interest-based in the period going from the beginning of the crisis to the first Minsk agreement. But then, in the two later periods going from the first Minsk agreement to April 2016 the justifications toward the sanctions shifted to be mainly self-interest and hostile towards the sanctions, with arguments built upon the economic losses made by France because of the sanctions against Russia.