There have been sanctions on Russia since 2016, and they got harder in 2017. The marginal value of additional sanctions is now greatly reduced. In retrospect, imposing sanctions in 2016 and 2017 was a bad idea.
Why?
Russia's response to the global Magnitsky Legislation shows that hitting the power structure in their oligarchs' assets works.
The point is that they are a prime example of how economic sanctions are effective, especially against Russia. If anything, there should have been the threat of more sanctions for invading, and now with countries like Germany pulling out of energy deals and other action, we have only to see how it plays out.
I mean really, that's just gaslighting now.
Or maybe you can finally answer why sanctions made things worse?
The sanctions largely weren't imposed until after the war started. So, it was mostly potential sanctions that didn't work