As someone growing up in a country that was under an embargo (born in '75 in Yugoslavia, spent my teenage years in 90's Serbia, under Milošević rule) and having seen it firsthand I can tell you that it never hits the ruling class and politicians - it only hits the common people - the more poorer you are the more you will feel it. Politicians and the rich people around them find the way to bypass it.
During those times my both parents were having small private firms and were trying to make end's meet which were difficult enough with the collapsing economy and inflation and having no political connections with the ruling class (they despised the serbian nationalism and were being active in the then-opposition parties) sure didn't help them.
The one occasion I will never forget is when my parents decided to go to Hungary to try to buy some glazes for my mother's pottery shop. They would've bought some 20-30 kilos, smuggled it in our car and that would've been enough for a next few months. When the shopkeeper in the Hungary heard they are from Serbia he decided that he wouldn't want to sell them anything because "embargo and war and stuff" and so my parents came home empty handed. They came to the shop as private individuals and must have mentioned briefly where they would be taking the merchandise (they both spoke hungarian) but the shopkeeper kept looking at them as if they were personally responsible for all the things that were going in the Bosnia at the time.
We didn't have to close the shop, a few weeks later they found another supplier and bought from there but it really left a bitter taste in their mouths.
(shameless plug: this is now my brother's pottery shop who inherited it from our mother who passed away 6 years ago, this is a small promo video he did some time ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD-bREcrLEQ