[QUOTE=Hamble;6634263]Government led sanctions seem to work.
Pressure group sanctions I distrust.
They tend to be biased and hypocritical.



Robert Pape - an American Political Scientist, stated: "That sanctions work only 5% of the time. Three main reasons why these fail -
1. The political cooperation we saw in the early 1990s is unlikely to continue, as countries are increasingly likely to put their interests first before considering Western policies.
2. The main reason sanctions fail is because of the nature of the target state. "They key reason that sanctions fail is that modern states are not fragile. Nationalism often makes states and societies willing to endure considerable punishment rather than abandon their national interests. States involved in coercive disputed often accept high costs, including civilian suffering, to achieve their objectives. …Even in the weakest and most fractured states, external pressure is more likely to enhance the nationalist legitimacy of rulers than to undermine it."
3. The expectation that cooperation from different states will make sanctions more effective, relies on two expectations: "that greater cooperation will increase the economic punishment on target states, and, more critically, that increased punishment will make targets more likely to concede." The latest especially is "dubious," according to Pape.

Sanctions against Russia are practically futile because Russia has huge resources and could create more problems with the West than the West could create with Russian sanctions.

Anyway, the last time sanctions were put on Russia, Russia hit back with a veryclever, bold and successful strategy against the German Bank.