In this case, I think private initiatives are better. Genuine deniability beats plausible deniability. This is not the sort of thing you want tied back to a government. Having a Russian run this is even better, since it's internal. There's no country to retaliate against.
That's what I thought the very first day they attacked, but sadly/luckily every crowdfunding platform that I'm aware of forbids any campaign to fund illegal actions.
Given enough time, however, Putin will have to deal with angry people, the military, the oligarchs, and let's not forget the Russian Mafia.