It seems that when the US and Europe impose sanctions on a government, such as Zimbabwe, it punishes the ordinary people who lose the stability that their government should be able to provide. Countries always have resources of various kinds that they need to sell, so if a government is blocked from selling those resources because sanctions have been imposed, this just opens up opportunity for crafty individuals to make money out of finding ways around the sanctions to help with the sale of those resources. That which would normally be done through official channels is done by the back door, enriching those involved but depriving the ordinary citizens of a country revenue that the government should be able to share more widely among its people.