A travel ban, experts said, would also have limited impact.
“They can stop Vladmir Putin from vacationing in Disneyland,” said Jeffrey Schott, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.
“These types of actions have been taken in the past against leaders of second-, third- and fourth-rate powers, not generally against major adversaries, because you still have to deal with them,” Mr. Schott said. “This is not going to change anything.”
All of this means, Mr. Nixey said, that “personal sanctions on heads of state are very difficult to do. What is more effective — even if slightly looser — is to target the people around him, the inner circle.”
Some of Putin’s inner circle, he said, clearly does have assets abroad, and they frequently travel, shop, send their children to school or live outside of Russia.“If his closest allies are not enjoying the type of life they want to lead,” Mr. Nixey said, that would put pressure on Mr. Putin over the longer run. But sanctions against members of this group have not been very harsh so far, he added.
“The West is playing of chicken right now,” Mr. Nixey said. “We’ve tried no sanctions, and fairly weak sanctions,” but not very tough ones.