So far, economic sanctions on Russia have done nothing to halt Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine. The ruble is still strong. Oil prices are high. Before Ukraine’s latest advances on the battlefield, polls showed that 75% of Russians still supported the war (in public at any rate).
So why continue with sanctions? Economic boycotts, of course, are one way for democratic governments to demonstrate their opposition to tyranny and military aggression without actually having to go to war.
They also represent an effort to turn people against their autocratic leaders. Some European politicians have claimed that stopping Russians from travelling to Europe will encourage them to demand an end to the war. Punishing oligarchs by seizing their yachts and freezing their foreign bank accounts is intended in part to encourage an elite backlash against Putin.
