Iran, NK and those Chinese firms are all still with us though, and in the case of the former are likely to have sanctions reduced. Start going after loads more - including firms in ally nations like the EU and India - and there will be even less success than what we see now.
I do worry that the collective West had a complete brain fart when it reacted in the way that it did to the invasion; it could perhaps be argued that we forgot why the USSR fell in the rush to be seen to "do something" and as a result we've ended up strengthening the regime.
I don’t perceive the current Russian regime as strengthened. Sanctions are starting to bite. Their airline industry is screwed, their car industry is screwed. Yes they’ve stabilised things but only in the short term. Russia is heading toward a low-tech economy.
Someone on here mentioned the brain-drain. That’s a good point, as a lot of middle-class / wealthy Ru citizens who worked in tech industries have bugged out to Turkey, UAE and Serbia. Russia has lost a great many of the people who made their economy tick.
The ultimate result of sanctions will see the continued existence of Russia but it will be a low-tech Russia unless they sort their stuff out and get the hell out of Ukraine.
