When personal sanctions on Russian oligarchs and officials were imposed by the US, EU and UK after Putin’s invasion, the rationale was that this would undermine the Kremlin. In the main, this has failed — and there is still no coherent strategy to encourage those Russians willing to turn against the regime.

Wider economic sanctions are slowly grinding away at the economic base of Putin’s regime and its war machine. The case for personal sanctions is much less clear. It is absolutely right and proper that those directly involved in the war, conducting repressions or justifying aggression ought to be punished. However, in their enthusiasm to be seen as taking a determined stand (and, in part, driven by what one British diplomat described as “performative one-upmanship”), all sorts of other Russians, especially wealthy ones, ended up on these various lists. As things stand, the US has sanctioned more than 3,000 people and entities, the UK over 1,600 and the EU almost 1,800.

The irony is that sanctions, visa and travel bans and asset seizures have left these people more dependent on the Kremlin.

[The broad nature of the sanctions wasn’t primarily intended to be individually punitive, though. The intent was to make sure that the Russian economy took an unavoidable hit, and that the rule of oligarchs in general got undermined. That wasn’t going to happen in a day, although it might be taking longer than the West hoped. The oligarchs will only turn on Putin when the people start turning on the oligarchs. The recent crises with the ruble might be a catalyst for that, although it’s too early to tell. At any rate, the idea wasn’t to get the oligarchs to revolt, but to make sure the oligarchs couldn’t back-door the sanctions regime with any effectiveness. — Ed]