> were also the economists who claimed that sanctions would destroy the Russian economy.

This is _very much_ up for debate. It's been a couple of years since Russia went completely dark on publishing key numbers on their economy. [This was three years ago.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRgS6gpiMX0). They had a large war chest ready before they went to war (part of which has been frozen in the west), and there are a lot of signs that they are on their last stretch before things go really bad for them.

Predicting _when_ things go bad is very difficult, so I do not hold that against said economists. The most telling sign is that the first thing the Russians ask for is for sanctions relief before any peace negotiations.