I guess that the gist is that the sanctions do work for raising costs to Russia, but are not a silver bullet to destroy their economy immediately.
As I mentioned above, sanctions have taken a huge chunk out of Russia’s main source of revenue (oil and gas).
That seems to be what he’s saying. In that case, sanctions are a good punishment, but no replacement for his would-be victims beating him.
On the other hand, driving Russia and China together is a diplomatic disaster, which multiple Presidents have been at great pains to discourage.
America is back!/s