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A drag on their economic growth means you can outscale them over the long run. Sanction evasion costs money. Copying technology only gets you so far. And it incentivises your economies to move off dependence on Russian resources, usually energy, that can be used for coercion that weakens the coalition.

Perpetual punishment is better defensible or likely to help the situation in the long run

The Soviet economy was like today mostly based on exporting resources such as OIL. There was no total sanction encorcement.

THere may have been some sanctions but ther eality is the USSR economy would fail if the west stopped trade with them. The USSR collapsed because their exports value collapsed in the 80s.

Because they caused a massive war in Europe, unprovoked.

This is conditional on Putin remaining in power. In a world where they became a real democracy, I'd be delighted to see them as a member of the EU.

I didn't ask why you decided it, I asked what it was going to achieve.

Oh, it actually helped? I remember a different ending to that story...