Many experts believe that the drop in oil prices was one of the reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Since the weak domestic economy was not able to secure an attractive level of consumption for the population, the Soviet Union was dependent on imports of western goods, which it financed with export earnings from the sale of oil.
When this business model collapsed, the entire giant empire collapsed.
It is very unlikely that the West's decision to impose an oil embargo and price cap on Russia will produce a comparable effect.
This policy is too half-hearted for that, because on the one hand it wants to make exports more difficult for Russia, but on the other hand there should be no shortage of oil on the world market, which would make the price significantly higher for consumers in the West.
Whether it will be possible to curb Russian exports noticeably at all cannot be said today.
The measures will probably prove to be neither very effective nor completely ineffective.
An extensive literature on sanctions in history does not paint a clear picture.
Examples can be found of sanctions that were in vain.
But there are also examples of sanctions with an unexpectedly strong effect.
In the case of Russia, an export ban on technology seemed promising from the start.
A country that lives from the export of raw materials but has hardly any technological expertise of its own needs a supply of foreign technology.
According to international military experts, Western sanctions in this area are clearly having an impact on the battlefield.
The susceptibility of the Russian economy to a severe crisis is difficult to assess.
In view of the history of the Soviet Union and given the sheer size of the country, there has long been a tendency in Germany to overestimate Russia in every respect.
However, the Russian economic power only corresponds to the economic power of Spain.
Putin's imperialism also comes with significant economic risk.