Everyone had been watching Russia and China stockpile gold for decades, as the article mentions. Recklessly piling on sanctions was well known to be stupid and only of minor influence. This is a situation where over-doing sanctions is a huge and moronic blunder.

Catastrophe is right around the corner, where Russia, China, and whomever follows, breaks off into a separate world monetary economy, trade system, and military group. In the long term, this would be a massive shift in power, where this Russia/China half of the world risk becoming the dominating world superpower. Climate chance is also poised to thaw vast reserves of valuable resources, as well as fertile land, for Russia, a huge benefit, while ravaging most other countries in various ways.

This overt long term risk was clear to everyone with half a clue. We had been trying for decades, some times painfully overlooking serious grievances, to use a softer, more diplomatic touch, to coax China and Russia into participating in our trade and economic systems, to discourage this. I though we had made pretty great progress, even while being terrible terrorizes of the world, worthy of their distrust.

It just takes one dictator-wannabe hot-head Western leader, who thinks he can bully everyone into submission, fixing all problems with media propaganda. Ignoring all diplomacy and instead making strict ultimatums with unconscionable demands and abusive attacks, leaves no real option.

Hopefully someone steps in and breaks off this growing world-wide wave of fascism, before it splits the wold economy and throws us into generations of conflict. You can't just react to every grievance with a regime, even terrible problems, by gathering up your posse of your super power buddies and demanding the world go full fascist against them.