No they didn't. He stayed in power via manipulation and assassinations and things like that. Cannot blame the people. (Well, a few, but in general.) Stalin also wasn't the people's fault.

There's been some estimates of how many votes Putin would get, if there were real elections, no vote fraud, no threats, opposition politicians hadn't been killed or imprisoned, everyone got to vote, didn't get bribed to vote on Putin -- and then from what I read, a large majority would vote against him.

Putins approval rating is around 70% (measured before the Ukraine invasion). His highest approval rating was about 88% back when Crimea was annexed. So he has broad public support and the population seem to be largely in favor of the expansionist policies, at least until now.

these are official government statistics, am I right?

By all accounts, he didn’t need to, but this goes so much further than just Putin. Local elections exist, they have a bicameral legislative body that approved this invasion, they originally approved the authoritarian constitution that allowed this to happen, they continue to prop up strong men in their culture and in their government.

This is a continuous choice by the Russian people to support men like Putin and Yeltsin, and it has massive negative consequences for the rest of the world.

Of course it makes sense to make it marginally harder to register and maintain a domain on the Internet as a result. If that’s the price a small handful of Russians have to pay for all of this, they should be infinitely grateful.

As an independent observer on the last Duma (lower house of Russian parliament) elections, I can tell with certainty that these elections were rigged. Upper house of the parliament is not elected.

If Russian elections are not free and fair (which they likely aren't), and the Russian people are not revolting or leaving, they are complicit in the outcomes anyway.

How exactly you see a revolution of unarmed people against fully armed people that have no problem with hurting and killing others? Do you really think that average Russian has enough money to leave the country?

Not well! But the alternative is to let Putin kill and threaten people on your behalf, so that's not going well either. No good options here, but at least if you revolt or leave, he's not doing those things with your endorsement. "It's hard!" is not an excuse to tolerate war crimes.

And yes, I really think the average Russian has enough resources to leave the country, because you need zero resources to stand up from your chair and walk in a direction. If you're stopped, that's not your fault, you're actively trying.

So you’re saying that all Russian people should just die horrible death trying to go unarmed against National Guard (the force that exists specifically to beat up and torture protestors)...

...or just be shot trying to illegally cross the border.

You’re literally suggesting some sort of self-genocide of 150 million nation.

If you think the most effective way to overthrow the Russian government is to try to go 1 on 1 against the Russian National Guard, you're probably not going to last very long in Russia or anywhere else, for that matter.

Same if you think literally doing zero prep work to leave Russia has a high chance of success. If it's your only option, you're not thinking creatively enough.

It just seems like you're operating in a state of learned helplessness, which is immensely sad but not the only way to live.

Please, do tell me the most effective way to overthrow the Russian government. I’m a member of protest movement since my high school and I assure you that if you have some option none of us are aware of, I’ll carefully consider it.

Also please explain what “prep work” can an average Russian with monthly income about $450 can do to sucessfully leave Russia.

“Stop treating overthrowing your murderous government as your hobby.”, would probably be step one.

Until then you’re just cosplaying so you can sleep at night.

And it costs nearly nothing to legally cross a border, but yes if the options are, “Continue to live in Russia” or, “Illegally cross a border.” Then break the law.

Your suggestions completely lack any specific actions. What exactly do you think could be done by unarmed and disorganized (because Council of Europe didn’t care when Navalny was jailed despite ECHR decision) Russian people? Please, elaborate on your proposed strategy.

Residence of which country you can get without having a lot of money and/or good career like IT specialist? How do you think unarmed person can illegally cross a border guarded by armed people without getting killed?

Either my suggestions lack specific action or crossing the border of another country will get you killed. One or the other, not both.

And if you don’t know what an insurgency is or how to run one, that’s on you to figure out. It is the only moral option if you’re Russian and want to stay in Russia.

Your suggestions about revolution lack any specific actions, your suggestions about immigration are simply way to get killed.

“Lol just figure out how to overthrow heavily militarized government” is completely ignoring the obvious truth that this is simply impossible. It was probably possible some years ago with support from abroad, but the only thing international institutions cared about was cheap natural gas and oil, so they ignored violations of international law and treated Putin as a lawful president. So now we have decapitated opposition, silenced media (just today two independent media were banned) and 2% of Russians serving in police and military. It stops any seeds of revolution from ever growing.

If you think it's impossible to overthrow the Russian government, then you should leave, and you will not be shot by border guards for illegally trying to leave Russia, that's completely wrong.

It sounds like you're comfortable where you are, and need to justify it to yourself that your country is using your consent to commit atrocities that you're ultimately okay with as long as you remain comfortable.

That's cowardice.

How do you imagine nearly 150 million people, most of them very poor by European standards, leaving the country? Why do you even think this is a moral action?

Money used to invade Ukraine mostly comes from other countries buying Russian natural resources. If you want to stop the invasion, go and protest against _your_ government to make it stop buying Russian oil.

I’m staying so I can protest and try to sway the current governments intentions. It’s hard and dangerous, but it has more chances to succeed than overthrowing the government. I’m staying so I can help the protestors. I’m staying so I can actually _do_ something about the situation. Leaving the country is actually easy for me (unlike most Russian citizens), but I don’t think it’s the morally right action.

You think 150 million people can act in unison to leave Russia, but cannot act in unison to fight to retake Russia?

I think that says a lot about how you really feel, and it's not good.