[bitcharmer]

Judging by the number of Russians taking the easy way out by just fleeing or complaining about the evil west closing their Ikea stores this nation at the moment has zero capacity to take responsibility for their own government.

I'm afraid it has to get much worse before it gets better. They still don't understand that as much as the government is responsible for its people, the people are also responsible for their government.

Putin didn't magically appear on the political scene with all the power he has now. Russians allowed Putin to happen; now they refuse to take responsibility.

[vlaaad]

Why would I take responsibility for something I have zero influence over?

He did just appear when Yeltsin said that he's leaving. He blatantly fakes elections: 146% support is a very telling result of one of these elections. It is a meme in Russia because when you can't do anything about it you can only laugh or cry.

His 20 years on the throne are a constant stream of murders, poisoning and jailing of people who try to do something about it, and their friends, and their families.

I'm just a normal person, I want to live a normal live with my wife and kids, I didn't choose any of that. Why do I have to risk going to jail for 15 years for mentioning that war is war, only because I was born on the wrong side of the border?

[awb]

Large scale military invasions don’t happen because of 1 person’s will. They happen as a chain of events that offer direct or indirect support that makes it possible. We are all in that chain. From the leader, to their government, to their funding sources, to the citizens.

Do you not speak up? Do you pay taxes? Do you support state run businesses? Do you go along with the system as it violently oppressed others and assassinated dissidents? We all have some responsibility to bear.

I understand you want a normal, peaceful life, but that is not what the world has chosen for you.

You can’t be neutral on a moving train.

The question is how badly do you want things to change? What are you willing to do to break your part in the chain?

If the answer is nothing, then you’re exactly the kind of citizen a dictator wants. One that will acquiesce as things get worse and worse, while still keeping the trains running on time and willing to look the other way.

[pilate]

Your prospects of a “normal life” are over. Whether you decide to do anything to improve it now is up to you.

[diordiderot]

>I want to live a normal live with my wife and kids

That's what Ukrainians want and unfortunately that's not an option for them, and now it isn't one for you either. Putin has taken that away from you.

The faster Russians realize that their fate is in their own hands the better. It's a collective action problem, Putin can't arrest everyone.

You won't live a normal life until he's gone so the question is, how do you make that happen sooner?

Easy way: General strike, 5% of people quit working, government will change. It will require personal sacrifice, and be a thankless task. No justified violence in response.

It's unlikely people care enough to make that sacrifice, therefore, sanctions.

Sanctions exist to make the cost of doing nothing more than the cost of taking action.

Medium way: Help accelerate discontent through low stakes capital sabotage. Pop tires, cut wires, set fires(didn't mean for these to all rhyme) break anything you can get away with.

Hard way: let Russia build up national industry and suffer 3rd world standards of living through your childrens entire childhood until Putin dies, wait as Russia is engulfed in a bloody internal power struggle and hope the good guys win

[optimalonpaper]

> I'm just a normal person, I want to live a normal live with my wife and kids, I didn't choose any of that.

That's what 2000+ civilians who died since 24th of February felt and wanted. They didn't choose to die. But they died. And more will follow if you don't start acting (not you but you as a society, you as a group of normal people who want a normal life). And so this is why you have to risk

[bitcharmer]

> Why would I take responsibility for something I have zero influence over?

Well, nothing will ever change in Russia even post-Putin with that mindset. And Russia's neighbors will pay the price of this passive attitude.

Other European nations are definitely showing more responsibility. This is just disappointing.

[BbzzbB]

Easy for us in the West to show responsibility when it's not our and our families' lives that are on the line. Our non-willingness (if political decisions can be considered collective, as so many here imply for Russia) to die is made obvious by the fact no one nation dares put a boot on the ground while Ukraine gets leveled.

[diordiderot]

Or maybe it's the certainty of global nuclear annihilation and the end of humanity as we know it

But you're probably right, the selfish cowards things makes sense. I guess that's why we haven't gone to war since 1945... Oh wait

[BbzzbB]

FWIW I'm not arguing we should, I just find it hypocritical to say Europeans (which I'll extrapolate to the rest of us in the West) are taking responsibility as opposed to Russians when we are doing so from the comfort of our intact living rooms.

[ip26]

It may actually be worse for Ukraine if NATO and Russia were to face off there. I’m no authority, but a showdown might be even more destructive.

[TravelPiglet]

Well you can move abroad