Half of them will blame the west, because, as in every country, roughly half the population believes whatever stupid authoritarian bullshit they are fed. Not much different from the West, just travel to a sundown town and ask who won the last election, or whether it's a good idea to get the 'rona vaccine.

The other half knows better, but also knows better than to talk about what they know publicly. Which is how Russia differs from the West.

>> everyone in Russia knows what's going on

Maybe in your circle.

You should open Odnoklassniki for a change. Or any propaganda website that gets tens of millions of readers per day. And those who know the truth would never open that because there is zero pieces of truth in them.

exactly. They were all fine with Putin, being Putin... since 97. Now, remote workers cannot get their salary because of the SWIFT sanction, Apple Pay stops to work and NOW suddenly it is serious?

The struggle is real (TM).

They were all OK with Putin because he was up there, next to the god, doing his tsar things that didn't appear to affect people down here much. He also did populist things and stoked Russian self-pride, which was a welcome development because the pride was all but destroyed during the Perestroika and what's left of it was exchanged for frozen chicken legs generously provided by the Bush administration.

In other words, he was tolerated with some approval. Not much thought was given to the trade-offs and some goodwill was assumed when these were made.

This approval is still there, but now it hinges on keeping masses fed with propaganda bullshit, to keep them believing that their fight (and suffering) is for the right cause. But when your life comforts take a nosedive, it will work only for so long.

So pulling a rug from under the unwashed gray masses is the exactly right thing to do in this situation. It's literally the only thing that could shake them off their consumerist nirvana, force to look around and realize how much they willingly exchanged in past 20 years for something that not only wasn't guaranteed, but could also be completely taken away on a very short notice.