[CRConrad]

> Oh, please, let's not start blaming most Russians.

Any regime can only stay in power as long as it has the support, active or passive, of a majority of its people. (That's why the German people was held collectively responsible for having abided the Nazi regime, and had to go through collective de-Nazification after WW2.) The fact that, with the exception of short periods of anarchy (most recently: the 1990s), Russia has had authoritarian-to-dictatorial regimes since... Well, since about forever, means that the Russian people has been condoning authoritarian-to-dictatorial regimes since about forever.

High time for a change in that, isn't it? And whom should that be up to... If not the Russian people?

> if Russians somehow manage to reinstate democracy in their country

I think you mean instate democracy, without the re-.

[Yoric]

Have you ever been risked your life and that of your family by being part of a revolutionary movement?

I haven't. I don't know that I would if I lived in a dictatorship. I'm not going to start blaming people because they haven't either.

[CRConrad]

Sure, they may have, from their viewpoint, valid reasons not to do anything about it. And sure, I couldn't swear that I would do any better in their situation. But: So what? Still doesn't mean it's not their fault, just like it would be mine in the same situation. The two are not logically related.

[Yoric]

Victim blaming? I'm not a fan.

[CRConrad]

The victims here are the Ukrainians; the Russians are the aggressors.

What you're not a fan of is aggressor-blaming. To most of the rest of us, the aggressors are precisely the ones who should take the blame.