The Russian war on Ukraine is hurting innocent Russians...
I loathe the Russian regime. The continuous stream of lies and propaganda, the hideous invasion of Ukraine, the fake democracy. It's just too much for me to stomach. It will take many years, if ever, for western democracies to accept Russians back in the civilized world.
Mind you, we (Europeans and Americans) are very good at being cynical about exchanging oil and gas for turning a blind eye to human rights violations, invasions, and hideous dictators. Mistreating women in Saudi Arabia, sharia law, dictatorships, public executions, everything is fine as long as the oil keeps flowing. We had pretty much the same attitude with China and Russia, as long as they did not cross some faint line. Invading Crimea was apparently “ok” – we let that fly with a slap on the wrist – however, the rest of Ukraine was off-limits. The same goes for China and Taiwan. But I digress...
Although it's easy to demonize entire nations in the context of their leader's actions, we must fight that approach. Yes, at the end of the day, it is up to the Russian people to tolerate their fake democratic leaders, but the entire concept of internally fighting dictatorships is way more complex when you live there. I know that. I'm Portuguese. We lived under Salazar's rule with a few years on top (from 1933 until 1974) for 41 years.
Many Russians tasted freedom after the end of the cold war. Sadly they allowed Putin to reach power, and everything went slowly downhill. The pretend democracy was tolerated, western companies entered the Russian market, and everything was fine and dandy until the freaking moron decided to play war games. He crossed “the” line...
Putin obviously had a problem with its inner circle. Being a Russian oligarch is apparently incredibly dangerous these days. They are dropping like flies. being “suicided”, sometimes along with their families, under mysterious circumstances. That's Putin's answer to discording voices with power and influence in Russia. I imagine there is very little ordinary educated Russians can do to avoid a similar fate.
I pity the many that are going thru terrible hardships. I follow quite a few YouTubers and the careers of brilliant engineers (like Alexey Nicolaychuk, known as ‘Unwinder’, the author of MSI Afterburner) who were unable (or unwilling) to escape the country in time and are now trapped in a nightmarish situation.
It's horrible. Many of these young men and young ladies are just about as guilty of the Russian regime's sociopathy as you and I...