The sanctions are not meant to get rid of Putin, and they could not. The sanctions are meant to put price tag on Putin's most egregious actions. Of course, if you view it as "denying Putin access to Linux tech support", it sounds stupid, but obviously it is much broader than that, RH is just one very tiny piece here. The idea is to make certain actions costly for Russia as a state and for Russia ruling clique, and thus to reduce motivation for actions that cause sanctions. Is it going to work? It depends on the original level of motivation, either it was high enough so Putin decides it is worth the cost, or not. In any case, rising of the price would make it less likely.

Deposing Putin is pretty much out of the question, the US has neither will nor means to do it, and in any case with 80% popular support (even if those figures are inflated the popular support are extremely high) it would do no good to anybody. Management and containment remains only option, and sanctions are how the containment is done.

I am also tremendously curious as to Putin's geopolitical ambitions. He controls a populace that loves him (Putin has very high approval ratings within Russia, I forget the exact numbers), and huge swaths of land and natural resources. He also has effectively unlimited term length, and controls a propaganda machine so powerful it rivals even that of the United States (/snark). All these factors make for a good recipe for going to war.

So why would he want to go to war? Energy. Currently, the Russian oil industry contributes massively to Russian GDP, as it's a net exporter of oil that has always controlled massive swaths of oil-rich land. BUT, in the past couple years, Shale Gas has risen as a viable alternative energy source. The US has so much shale gas that it will be a net energy exporter by 2020, and natural gas prices in the EU are plummeting because of this. Thus, EU energy companies are turning to natural gas sources -- namely, the US -- for their energy, and reducing their dependence on imported Russian oil.

Putin sees the writing on the wall, and he knows that one of Russia's primary income sources is dwindling, as is his stack of bargaining chips along with it. He needs to find a replacement for this income, fast.

According to Wikipedia [1], Ukraine has the 3rd most known Shale deposits of any country. I suspect it's no coincidence that Putin is charging into Ukraine, a country with a promising energy future, at a time when demand for his oil reserves is dwindling.

If I'm correct, and Putin's ultimate motive is the shale gas reserves in Ukraine, this is at least encouraging because it means he will likely stop after taking Ukraine. That may seem bad, but you can't really fault him for that logic, and a lot of Ukrainians seem to support Putin, so it doesn't seem like something the US should put too much effort into stopping.

There are a lot of massive geopolitical shifts happening in the next decade. The US becoming a net energy exporter will have effects on the Middle East, Russia, and other BRICS. Simultaneously, the BRIC countries are opening their own IMF competitor to reduce their dependence on the Petrodollar. And while all this is happening, China is building up its military, Russia is isolating itself, and the US is pumping fodder after fodder into its anti-BRIC propaganda machine.

The next decade looks like one that will be very unstable, and I suspect it will mark the beginning of the next major war. Scary time.

[1] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shale_gas_by_country