Russian invasion of Ukraine

A viewpoint many in this thread have said they disagree with:

Asked what the west could do to help, he said he thought it could “send a clear signal to the Russian people that it does not consider them an enemy”.

Russians needed an alternative to Putin’s imperialism, which brought death and poverty, isolation, corruption, arbitrariness, he added. “It would be a big mistake if the rhetoric and sanctions policy of the west degenerate into Russophobia.”

Remarks like these have put Yashin at odds with some of Ukraine’s most ardent supporters abroad. They have said millions of Russians are to blame just as much as Putin for the war. Yashin has always argued the opposite, that “our society has also become a victim of Putin”.

“Don’t get me wrong, I don’t idealise my people,” he wrote. “Yes, unfortunately we have allowed this criminal power into the Kremlin. People believed the propaganda, allowed themselves to be manipulated, did not control officials and security forces. All this is our responsibility. But this does not mean that the Russian people deserve to be defamed.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/04/ilya-yashin-kremlin-critic-speaks-out-from-russian-prison-putin-ukraine