[paganel]

It might well have been, but the fact that the West first sanctioned the Russian oligarchs (even before 2022) showed that they really did believe in that wishcasting, i.e. they really did believe that the oligarchs will react “economically rational” and do something about Putin so the sanctions would go away.

[mullingitover]

Sanctions on their own don't prove that they believed the oligarchs could do anything about Putin. Arguably Putin's oligarchs are merely his appendages, so hammering them indirectly hammers Putin and the Russian war machine.