Which is a logical result of decades of sanctions, allowing only the insiders to profit from the country's ressources while the common man is bared from providing an alternative. Sanctions do not work and only entrench regimes, as we see in Russia, Cuba, North Korea and now Iran.

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ajsnigrutin 4 hours ago | parent [-]

I've just been at a conference where some high-up guy from germany was talking about the effect of sanctions... russia used to sell wood pulp to germany, german factories would produce paper products and then sell a lot of them back to russia.

Then sanctions came, no more very cheap wood pulp for the german industry, and after a year of sanctions, the russians built (i think) 4 large paper factories, so even after the sanctions end, that business is not coming back to germany.

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nradov an hour ago | parent [-]

OK, so what? Obviously we shouldn't continue trading with enemies regardless of the economic impact.

	▲	Saline9515 29 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Why? If the objective is to weaken a regime, and the sanctions strengthen it, why should you help your “enemy”? The classic mistake here is to consider that dictatorships are like democracies—they aren't, and their power structure is different and more resilient to economic shocks. Even Bachar Al-Assad, who was much weaker, took 13 years to leave power. At some point, one should question if wide sanctions targeted at increasing the suffering of the civilian population are really worth it.