undefined | Better HN

0 pointsdon_esteban9mo ago0 comments

"The point is to get people in those contries to overthrow their leadership."

No, that's for consumption by population of the sanctioning country. The people in the know know very well that that never works.

The point is for every other country in the world to see how much it hurts if you don't follow the wishes of USA. Classic mafia strategy.

The exception were the sanctions on Russia at the start of the Ukraine war. Those were unprecedented (including the freezing of the national bank assets and blocking of Swift) and it looks like the western powers really believed that those sanctions will cause economic collapse and regime change in Russia.

0 pointsdon_esteban9mo ago0 comments

"The point is to get people in those contries to overthrow their leadership."

No, that's for consumption by population of the sanctioning country. The people in the know know very well that that never works.

The point is for every other country in the world to see how much it hurts if you don't follow the wishes of USA. Classic mafia strategy.

0 comments

5 comments · 3 top-level

ivan_gammel9mo ago· 2 in thread

Swift wasn’t blocked. There were targeted sanctions against certain banks.

don_estebanOP9mo ago

This seems like legalistic perspective.

What percentage of Russia's foreign transactions went through those banks?

Certainly, normal people can't normally transfer money to/from Russia. The same for almost all companies.

ivan_gammel9mo ago

Jain, as Germans say. It is not impossible to transfer the money (e.g. if you by a chance have accounts in certain banks on either side). Russian foreign trade still exists, Russian tourists still buy tours and spend money abroad etc. It’s even more complicated picture, of course.

JumpCrisscross9mo ago

> point is for every other country in the world to see how much it hurts if you don't follow the wishes of USA

This is the symbolic value of sanctions. It’s a part of coalition building and domestic messaging. (Though if you constantly do it this becomes less effective.)

It’s a classic team-building strategy: costly signalling [1]. You see it in mafias, but like, also when a softball team buys matching jerseys.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costly_signaling_theory_in_e...

lyu072829mo ago

Ironically the amount of sanctions the US put in place around the world is a large driving force for the decline of LIO and emergence of things like BRICS and SCO. I'm sure sanctions against Cuba and Venezuela are going to lead to regime change any moment now. The more you know, the more grotesque it all becomes, fortunately most know nothing.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse