It’s not clear that it is. Countries in crisis often try to impose capital controls to stem the outflow of cash and prevent collapse but it’s super unpopular an

It’s not clear that it is. Countries in crisis often try to impose capital controls to stem the outflow of cash and prevent collapse but it’s super unpopular and causes extreme internal instability. The sanctions created the most effective Capitol controls the world has ever seen resulting in all money getting trapped in Russia and may have actually prevented a major collapse that would have happened normally if Russia had to impose those same controls from within. Without sanctions any money from Russian natural resources would have simply escaped and been used to buy dollars and foreign real estate. With sanctions Russian oligarchs had nowhere to exfoliate their loot and had to reinvest internally which may have prevented the collapse we wanted to create. Economist are going to be writing books for decades analyzing if the sanctions were effective or counter productive.