Clearly it is not revenge, that is a ridiculous thing to say. Sanctions are the kind of things that tend to send unmistakable messages: we are serious about this and we're willing to hurt our own interests to hurt yours, stop what you are doing or it will get worse. Of course that requires a modicum of rationality on the other side, which we may not have in this case, and obviously the rulers will usually be utterly unaffected. But six degrees works as well in Russia as it does elsewhere, and living under sanctions is a lot more comfortable than living under a rain of artillery fire.

If you aim at the Russian industrial complex (which produces a lot of the arms), and the government with sanctions then obviously you will it the people too. But that's not as bad as a shooting war (or a nuclear war) would be. And it doesn't rule either out.