Decision Pyramid of Russia and the Issue of Ukraine

West has been trying to force Moscow to change its policies on Ukraine through sanctioning Russia. However, these sanctions could not stop Russia supporting the pro-Russian militias in Ukraine. Thus, we can conclude that the only concern of the present decision pyramid in Russia as in the Cold War and the former Soviet era is to maintain their own personal interests (and not the rights and privileges of the people and Russia). That is why the strengthening of Gazprom as the most important economic center in Russia and also promoting the political position of Moscow during post Boris Yeltsin years does not led to a tangible improvement in the quality of Russians' life.
So it is convenient for the West to determine private and personal interests of the decision pyramid's members as the target of sanctions in order to realize the pressures against Moscow or in other words to make these pressures efficient.
Certainly, when the members of Russian decision pyramid separated their own interests from the interests of Russia, it is expected that the West identifies the mentioned separation to avoid wasting the resources and quickly achieve its goals.
An important point in this respect is that Moscow's dangerous decisions on Ukraine, which eventually led to the sanctions against Russia, have definitely been against the long term interests of big economical companies of Russia such as Gazprom. But despite this fact, these companies have continued their support of the Russian leadership, so doesn't this mean that these companies confirm the Kremlin's policies?!

Ukraine: The Energy’s Cards

Ukraine and Russia will soon enter negotiations about the sale of Russian gas but the difference in energy negotiations with the last time is that Kiev is able to undertake the Civil War and at the same time Moscow was not able to be acquitted from the charge of supporting the militants of East Ukraine and this means that the crisis of East Ukraine has become a winner card for Kiev, whereas in the last period, this crisis was considered as a victory for Moscow. But Kiev can be benefited by this card when Washington and its allies try to suppress Moscow in negotiations through considering failure factors of Moscow from vindicating the support of pro-Russians in East of Ukraine and victories of the president of Ukraine. It should be noted that Gazprom is the last trump card of Kremlin to change the game in favor of the Moscow, therefor; if West fails to apply pressure on Moscow, Russia will then be able to use Gazprom as a trump card.  
Ultimately, of course, putting the card of East Ukraine crisis on energy negotiations would be able to persuade Kremlin to make realistic decisions based on realism.