That’s a different standard. I’m not claiming that there haven’t been negative consequences, but I would hardly call the economic sanctions “backfiring.” To me, backfiring means that the action actually brought the West further away from their goal of harming Russia using nonviolent means with the sanctions.

Consider the price of oil. Having options to sell oil in more markets means you can generate more profits. Being forced into selling oil only to a smaller set of countries who are willing to purchase your product? That’s going to have economic consequences even though it does increase isolationism. I also imagine it’s quite a bit more inconvenient being an oligarch right now in the presence of sanctions.

Has there been some blowback? Sure. But I don’t think it’s backfired completely. There’s definitely been a major impact.