The Russian economy was already struggling propped up with energy exports. Now it's drowning. It will have an impact. The alternative is to continue funding their military.
I don't think we've ever seen sanctions to this degree before, ever (aside from war time). Usually major countries don't sign on and others cheat. In this case, it's much of the global economy that stopped doing business with Russia. And yes, China and India will try and compensate.
The alternatives are not very appealing either:
1. Stand aside completely and use harsh language.
2. No sanctions, try and arm Ukraine, but let Russia continue to fund its military as before.
3. Military conflict.
4. We could rationalize and say "Well, we attack other countries too, so it's OK."
Of course, as misguided as the US has been at times, we have not attacked other countries with the intent of incorporating them into our own. We blow them up and then leave (since 1898 anyway).
