That's pretty pedantic. With "Russians" it's pretty clear in this context that it means the government. When somebody in another country complains about Americans it's most likely about the government and not all people.

If 9/11 had been planned by a government we would also say the "Iraqis" and not the "Iraqi government".

> It would be more accurate to say 'the Russian government and affiliated parties' (or just 'Russian government', if you're into the whole brevity thing).

I was taking, based on what seemed to me to be exquisitely clear contextual clues, “the Russians” in the post I was responding to as “the Russians to whom blame has widely been attached”, who, yes, are the Russian government and certain regime-linked business figures.

“Stop blaming the Russians”, it seems to me, makes clear that the focus is those Russians who are currently being blamed, which is not the Russian population in general.

> “Stop blaming the Russians”, it seems to me, makes clear that the focus is those Russians who are currently being blamed

Yes, if you were to stop and think about it, this is the intended meaning. However, when people constantly hear 'The Russians' repeated over and over..

#notallrussians is an argument (like #notallmen) that contributes nothing to anyone because nobody has at any point said "literally all Russians". You're bringing nothing but noise.

You don't have to say it explicitly in order to carry the connotation across.

Except no one actually believes it's "all Russians". Everyone knows "the Russians" means "the Russian government". So yeah, just noise.