The delusional take that refuses to die in the west. Worked out so well in Iran and some other places, right?
I am both saddened and amused at how accurate this is.
Let me offer perspective on this from the west though. The largest bastion of Communism was the Soviet Union. During the cold war the US represented the western ideals of democracy and capitalism, while the eastern ideal of communism united the Soviet Union. Between the two, which of these things is still around today? You'll note that reasonably the US won...and that's largely how the discussion was framed for the longest time.
Let me next suggest that the track record of very large governments trying to foment capitalism has subsequently had an interesting history. There is no one outcome, and it's led to things like North/South Korea, South America, and the Taiwanese and Mainland China situations. Heck, it's almost like the politics is so complicated that literally hundreds of books can and have been written about why each situation turned out the way it did...if those situations aren't still evolving.
Now, let me suggest why there's optimism in the west for people overthrowing what they believe as unfair governance. The US did it to Britain for taxation without representation. Taiwan did it after their founding, and are now a democracy. Europe did it years ago, when they switched from monarchies to democracy. These are powerful and fundamental examples, but all are so deeply engrained in the west that they form the core of our belief systems. Good>>Bad. The difficult part is defining what is bad...
On the other hand, the Russian identity is less about believing in an amorphous good, and more about observing reality. The common statement here is that it's depressing, but I'd further that it's realistic ahead of any sugar coating. In very simplistic terms, the west is optimistic leaning toward realistic while the east is realistic leaning towards pessimistic. It's very difficult to wrap your brain around that base identity, but once you do it's very difficult to not see why people are motivated as they are.
Now, getting back on track. The discussion is about sanctions. The west generally believes you cut off the supply of goods, people get angry, and the force of their anger makes political change happen. One of the Russians I knew back in Germany put it differently. He stated that sanctions only work when they make life miserable for the ruling class, because anything less is rapidly adopted as standard life if there's no way to change it. In many governmental structures, the people have little individual agency to change anything.
The hope would be that sanctions on luxury goods, like chips, does make it difficult for the rich. That said, these statements are not about that...they're about signaling that Intel and AMD aren't a part of the problem...which is fundamentally wrong-headed. That said, sometimes statements aren't about being right, so much as stating that you are doing the "right thing" for those who support you the most. Politics aside, losing 0.1% of the semiconductor sales in the world is nothing compared to being black balled from business in the west. Framed as such, these statements are abundantly clear in intent.
