Comment by filoleg

> russian people chose to live under dictatorship, now they face the consequences of their own doing

Just like North Korean people chose to live under dictatorship? Do you honestly think that Putin won all his elections fairly, especially with all his opponents (including Navalny) suddenly getting charged with random bogus crimes every single time elections come up, which just coincidentally leaves them locked up in jail and unable to run for presidency?

A significant chunk of Russian population isn't completely brainwashed, given protests have been massive over the past decade, and despite the consequences always being brutal. Yes, I do have relatives living in Russia, and from what they told me they have witnessed, the violence against protestors has been way more excessive than what was shown on the news here (let alone russian news, which try to not cover it at all, aside from a passing mention). The fact that they got over 1.5k+ arrested a couple of days ago alone tells volumes, and that's just official estimates from last week. The real numbers are, I wager, much higher than that by now.

P.S. No, I am not against sanctions or SWIFT disconnection. Clearly, as we can see now, those were needed to push the Russian economy in the direction that would be more conductive for Russia agreeing to finally consider negotiating ceasefire and feel the weight of the consequences. Namecheap terminating user account services in Russia? That doesn't affect the Russian economy even in the slightest and just punishes regular people who already are scrambling due to their own emergency plans and assisting others. Which is evidenced by a lot of replies in this thread from those in that exact situation.