Why are they meaningless? Because he has no assets in the U.S.
Via TPM:
One Russian politician is gloating despite being slapped with U.S. sanctions on Monday.
Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s deputy prime minister, is among the officials whose U.S. assets were frozen because of their support for Crimea’s vote to break away from Ukraine and join with Russia.
Rogozin posted a snarky tweet directed at “comrade” Obama that brushed off the sanctions as ineffective. He asked in English if the President thought about how to punish those Russian politicians who didn’t own property abroad or keep their money in U.S. banks.