Can the West Impose sanctions on Russia That Hurt?Despite all the rhetoric by Biden et al, the short answer is NO.
There is a lot of talk about sanctioning the Nordstream 2 Pipeline and how this will hurt Russia. The fact of the matter is that Nordstream 2, while completed, is still awaiting final regulatory approvals and so right now Russia isn't making any money from it anyway. Besides, the rest of the gas from Russia which supplies Europe is another pipeline that goes through, you guessed ...lol, The Ukraine. So shutting that pipeline down would hurt the Ukrainians which wouldn't go over very well.
With all this going on in the background, Russia and China have been negotiating a second pipeline to take gas from Siberia to China and doubling the sale of natural gas from Russia to China. There are expectations that a deal will be signed sometime in the next couple of weeks during the Olympics.
This second pipeline is expected to be connected to the natural gas fields which currently supply Europe and when the pipeline is built it will provide Russia with an alternative market for some of the gas it currently ships to Europe. Albeit, this second pipeline won't be big enough to supplant all the gas going to Europe but it will make a difference.
The sad thing is that The West and primarily, the US, have a bunch of silly bureaucrats who as a general rule make bad decisions and the US has lobbyists who want a war to fill their corporate pockets with the sale of weapons and later infrasturture contracts to rebuild after the war. Little consideration is actually given to the fact that thousands of people will lose their lives over their stupidity and greed especially when a simple solution is hiding in plain sight.