More on Zimbabwe. An excellent column by pavell Russia as a Negro At first glance, there seems to be nothing much to say. One might simply pity the unfortunate Black people who ended up with such an inept ruler, and side with the West. After all, being a dictator is bad, wrecking the economy is ugly, and rigging elections is ultimately self-defeating. But it was precisely the elections that our diplomacy became fixated on. The West proposed imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe. Incidentally, they were fairly mild: an embargo was to be placed on arms supplies to the country, and senior regime officials were to be banned from leaving it.