Re: Just an opinion
The purpose of sanctions is to drive the target country's economy downwards. Its one of the tools of economic warfare, its goal is to make like so miserable for people living in target countries that they'll welcome a replacement government, one more amenable to Western interests. We actually spend quite a bit of money stirring up trouble in these target societies and, of course, we're game for any national liberation movement we can find or create.
Another plank in this process is encouraging emigration, especially of qualified people. (We normally use terms like 'defecting'.) This has come back to bite us because by selectively encouraging emigration we've also encouraged mass emigration of people displaced by economic hardship, war and so on.
Incidentally, how would you describe a government like Saudi Arabia's?