I have to say Russia is not even a "decent" nation, it is a huge one so trying to do it to them was a bad idea from the start and I get that, I understand that if you want to do sanctions to a huge nation, you are forgetting that the world needs a lot from that nation and this time it was energy, if you do that to any other nation, you would face some other problem but it is a problem nevertheless. That is what I really can't stress enough why the sanctions failed, because world needs energy from Russia.
Once again about the "huge". say - and for example the Congo - "a huge, great country"? Or, for example, Vietnam is a "huge country"? And Nigeria?
The first 2 countries - fully correspond to the "scale" of Russia in terms of population. Nigeria - exceeds 2 times Russia. Where is the greatness of Russia? In territory? I'll tell you a secret - 70% + of this territory IS NOT INVOLVED AT ALL, and ARE NOT OPENED !!! You didn't know? These territories are not suitable for life, there is nothing useful or strategically important there! So greatness is very "inflated"