@ThroughThickAndThin01
There is currently a dingdong on another thread about boycotting Russian goods. Some posters don’t want to because it will hurt the normal Russian wo/man on the street. Reading your posts - we need to be doing this as it would in turn destabilise the Russian economy and therefore hamper Putins influence. Is that correct and we should boycott everything Russian?
Yeah that thread is part of the reason I made this one.
People need to understand what sanctions actually are, yes there is a small part about making clear to the ordinary person on the street in Russia that they are a pariah state, that the world condemns them. A bit of a 'south africa' effect. The ordinary man and woman on the street will see the effect this has on their country and their lives, and will ask if it is really worth it. It's about targeting that significant section of the public who don't care hugely either way, so they're fine with dropping it if it means e.g. coke on the shelves, life back to normal.
There were borderline riots in Ikea stores when they decided to close (which BTW was only after a concerted campaign), which did not go down well in Ukraine, to say the least. To see seemingly more people charging to get their Billy bookcase than opposing the mass slaughter is not a good look. This does all help to make a country harder to govern, which stops military adventurism.
BUT this is only a tiny part of what sanctions are. The main reason sanctions are used is they help to stop the war machine, not immediately but in time. This is especially crucial now that Putin has made clear he is a danger to the rest of Europe. We simply cannot afford to let him be able to continue.
To understand sanctions it probably helps to think of the start of the second world war. One of Hitler's key policy was Autarky, meaning making Germany self sufficient. So this meant it wouldn't need to import and also was making all its own eg technology and weaponry. This meant even cutting Germany off from the outside world would nor stop the war machine. Luckily, with Russia it is a very different situation. They are hugely reliant on outside cash and supplies, so we have the opportunity through crippling their economy to make continuing the war very difficult, and expanding it impossible.
It's more complex than that in practice, but another key thing to know is how the central bank of a country works to stabilise the economy. The specific sanctions on the Russian Central Bank removes these tools. It's crucial to stop Russia being able to access dollars, euros and pounds, make its currency plunge and make it impossible for it to source necessary materials. There are specific materials like computer chips that would be directly used in the war, so cutting off these specific supplies is also a mammoth boost.
So yes in short, I would definitely recommend it. Money spent on Russian products is money that ultimately boots the Russian economy, undermines sanctions and funds the war machine. A percentage of that money you spend on the goods would go towards that military spending (and that percentage is likely to vastly increase with!). So getting western companies out of Russia and boycotting everything Russian, in concert with the military support and diplomatic work, is how we bring this to an end.
Another element of course though is that this internal pressure puts pressure on Putin to go to the negating table, both from internal sources and knowing he can no longer finance the war.