It is true that economic sanctions may break the backs of many countries. The country will become poor, maybe try to be self-sufficient, if it can, it will be able to survive, but it will not be able to shout at all. However, these theories may apply to Venezuela, Iran, and North Korea. But what happens when you try to play this kind of game with superpowers?
The greatest lesson of history is that no one learns from history. The same thing that is being done with Russia today is being done with Germany. Following Germany's defeat in World War I, Germany was burdened with a huge debt burden of about 269 billion gold coins. In terms of money, it is equivalent to 1 lakh tons of gold. The sole purpose of imposing this huge debt was that France and Britain wanted Germany to break the economic deadlock and not even think of war for the next hundred years. A master plan to subdue Germany without a war.
The problem is, only the weak die in the rice without hitting the hand. If you want to kill someone who has a sword in his hand, he will snatch the rice from you.
This humiliating chapter of the Treaty of Versailles provoked widespread outrage inside Germany. The Allies were to blame for Germany's economic woes at the time, and the people were agitating. When Hit-Lar finally came to power, he completely refused to repay the loan.
This debt burden and all the degrading chapters of the 1st Treaty of Versailles led to the rise of extremism in Germany. By capitalizing on which, the national hero becomes a hit-and-run offensive. Those who pushed for the treaty rather than cripple Germany seemed to invite more rather than avoid war through the treaty. Everyone knows the history of violence in the rest of Europe.
The context is not exactly the same, but how realistic is it if the West thinks that Russia will continue to weaken the economy by quietly imposing sanctions on this huge military power? It is possible to put pressure on Russia on various issues if we have economic relations. But when Russia is left completely helpless, will they apologize to the West as helpless? It is difficult to believe that Russia will do that with such a huge military force. When the Russians turn from angry to extremist against the West over Russia's problems, there may be a repeat of what happened in Germany. Which will devastate Europe.
They concede that the attempt to economically cripple Germany at the end of World War I was suicidal, which is why German leaders were tried after World War II but no attempt was made to harm the German nation. But they want to do the same thing with Russia again. It remains to be seen whether the outcome will be the same again or not.
The problem is that you made a mistake at the very beginning, equating reparation payments with sanctions. And then the rest of the discussion was built on this erroneous opinion. Reparations are retribution for a crime committed. The aggression of Germany led to a huge number of victims, and the reparations became a good flogging for the entire population of Germany, and an occasion to think whether it is worth supporting the bastard rulers.
Regarding Russia, the world has become a little smarter, although it has not yet reached the desired level ... But already now, in order to weaken those who decided to repeat the path of Nazism, they are introducing restrictions that weaken the economy. These are sanctions. But after Russia collapses (and this is a matter of a fairly near future), this under-empire will be for many decades to come, eat grass and pay debts, for death, terror, violation of moral / ethical standards and other crimes against humanity. Yes, they were lucky when they unleashed a massacre in Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and other countries - then they got away with it. Now it won't come off!
