> I'm not sure why you're mentioning them if you already knew that I'm not defending Russia. Because an argument is correct or incorrect regardless who makes i

> I'm not sure why you're mentioning them if you already knew that I'm not defending Russia. Because an argument is correct or incorrect regardless who makes it. > On the other hand, this is no excuse to close your eyes to reality... For example the reality of USD to RUB exchange rate, that went down after annexation of Crimea, and went further down after February 2022. > ...The EU sanctions that were supposed to hurt the Russian economy,.. And did. > ...ideally by so much that support for the war would stop,... Failed here. We need more sanctions, especially as with time russia learns to circumvent them. > ...don't have the desired effect... They don't have the desired, as you put it, ideal effect. There is some clear effect however. > ...In fact they might even have boosted the Russian economy at some point,... The sanctions like stopping the flights were devastating, so I can't be sure, but I can agree due to the "might" word being used. I'm very open-minded that in the short term such boost may have happened, and I argue how in some ways it's to be expected. > ...and also they are driving Russia into the arms of China. The power of China is hugely overestimated by an average Joe. Probably due to Chinese propaganda, people think we (the west) rely on China more than the China relies on us. Which is very far from true. Strengthening China by vassalization of russia is bad, but if russia is forced to become a vassal, it only proves the sanctions do work and hurt it.