@Lodinn Yes. Sanctions are ethically fraught. So is not imposing sanctions.

Overall, governments imposing sanctions is an absolutely sensible thing, and for those affected by it, it is indeed better to not think of it as being singled out and attacked personally. But what I am saying is that are also well within their right to press their (again, personal) case against those sanctions. The end goal of any political influence is making people change their behavior; refusing any positive change if it falls short of becoming the paragon of virtue is just counter-productive

@Lodinn "some people seem to think that some sort of civil unrest " please not forget that for many people (and politicians) in the west the thinking is ... "foreign ruler X is a fascist and therefore he is violent and killing opponents, so what we will do? we will kill him!" because if you are a democrat and you eliminate someone, that does not make you a fascist. Even passing censorship rules as a democrat (see hate-speech rules) does not make you a fascist. Fascists are ...

only the one so defined by the democrats.

@Dr.Snoopy: Thanks for your response and the clarification!