None of the Russian expats I’ve met had this problem: after 2014 they all saw the writing on the wall and moved their money to western banks. I have sympathy for those that didn’t - normal people shouldn’t have to make this kind of calculus - but there’s no alternative to this while having useful sanctions. It’s not the causeless brutality of breaking someone’s window because of their accent.
Well, every expat I know, including me, had this problem and spent days working around. And the sanctions were very poorly designed, because the drones landing in Ukraine still have fresh American and German parts.
I'm not saying they should be lifted, but they punished the most exactly the pro-European Russians, inside our outside.
