> Sanctions are cruel and ineffective.

You know what's cruel? War is cruel.

I agree. Unfortunately those prosecuting this war knew that sanctions were coming, and will be largely/wholly unaffected by them.

It is only normal people, most of whom are against war, who will suffer as a result. Doctors who can't source medicine, workers who can't pay their staff, et c.

These sanctions will not negatively affect Putin; he has expected them for years and indeed has been explicitly preparing to cope with them.

That's true but the sanctions do send a message, especially if those sanctions also affect the EU: that we are willing to take a hit to get this under control.

Regardless: if Russia doesn't come to its senses quickly the country will likely not recover in the next 40 years or so from the kind of damage they are doing to their stature on the international stage, this is not the kind of thing you walk away from and claim it was 'just Putin'. Time is running out, and the easy solutions have all already been pre-empted by events.

Russia is a lot more than its military dictators, it is the Russian people you are talking about harming.

Should cancer patients in Oklahoma not be permitted to buy chemotherapy medications because Bush invaded Iraq?

We banned collective punishment in the Geneva Convention because it is insane and unjust.

I have persian friends with family in Iran who can testify firsthand to how damaging sanctions are to people who have no ability whatsoever to remedy the problems that caused the sanctions to be put in place. Personifying countries is an error.

> Russia is a lot more than its military dictators, it is the russian people you are talking about harming.

Yes, and I'm sorry about that. But that is the country that is currently invading another country.

> Should cancer patients in Oklahoma not be permitted to buy chemotherapy medications because Bush invaded Iraq?

I'm out of patience for the day for silly arguments, sorry.

> We banned collective punishment in the Geneva Convention because it is insane and unjust.

That's not what collective punishment is about.

> I have persian friends with family in Iran who can testify firsthand to how damaging sanctions are to people who have no ability whatsoever to remedy the problems that caused the sanctions to be put in place. Personifying countries is an error.

Yes, this is called collateral damage. See also: photos of Ukrainian kids sheltering in the Kiev subway today in fear of the Russian onslaught headed towards their city, if you want to personify this then maybe have a look at those instead of trying to gain sympathy for the citizens of the aggressor nation.

I have sympathy for the innocent people on all sides of these invisible lines who are or will be harmed by the criminal, violent actions of a tiny minority. Nationality does not enter in to it at all.

Using techniques that will not affect those who caused the war, while severely punishing those who are not involved in the war (simply because of where they live), will not help the situation, it will make it worse.

Sanctions are a required step in this process, it is annoying but that's how it is. Skipping that step would require a far stronger response at this stage, and that is really going to punish people that are bystanders. But it may well come to that.

Isn't Iran a great example of sanctions actually having some useful effect, though? In 2015 Iran agreed to give up much of its nuclear program in exchange for lifting many of the US/UN/EU sanctions.

This no nonsense attitude never gets applied to western countries though. Droning weddings is cruel. Yet no one blames that on American citizens