you are restricting trade with another country, so you will be affected yourself. yes, of course you will. but there's also a whole other generation of sanctions where you can focus your sanctions on individuals, and that has a much greater effect on those individuals and everyone else. when it comes to the putin regime, so many of these oligarchs are close friends of putin's, and they have his gold in his pockets. he doesn't keep his money abroad in his own name, he keeps it in the name of others — so clamping down on them is also a pretty good way of clamping down on putin. ., ., , , . ., , , putin. tom keating specialises in financial crime _ putin. tom keating specialises in financial crime and _ putin. tom keating specialises in financial crime and internationall financial crime and international consequences of some of this, and he said earlier that this is all fine, but in the end until you deal with money that's accruing to the russian states their oil and gas sales, all of this is nice to have bonuses on top, but that is the key element