The purpose of our study is to examine how the sanctions influence macro talent management. To do so, we review the macro talent management (MTM) framework alongside the literature on sanctions. Using the case of Russia we have collected data from 419 media publications discussing the effects of sanctions and analyzed them using critical discourse analysis. Our findings highlight the predominantly negative nature of the sanctions’ impact on MTM ecosystems, theoretically yielding closer links between the sanctions and the MTM framework, and human capital more specifically.