Go watch how people go with bare hands to protest russian forces literally this minute.

And yes, they don't risk 3-15 years of jail. They have hundreds of times higher chance to die.

But they don't use it as an excuse.

There is a very small number of protesters. We'd need a million people to rise up in Moscow alone to make a difference. Putin has too much support among his voters atm. And the iron curtain only solidifies his propaganda machine.

>> There is a very small number of protesters.

You sure? Or just speculate to support your point?

I follow russian anti-war channels where people share videos of protestors. Numbers are very small I'm afraid (more cops than protestors).

You should join some groups in viber/telegram of people that actually live there, and see for yourself.

The only small numbers are russian army that wants to take a 44 mil country with weapons, cities, etc by their demotivated 150k troops that don't have the slightest clue how to fight.

I'm Russian and yes I am a member of the telegram groups you mention.

You could get shot in the head during Euromaidan[1] demonstrations in Ukraine (2013-2014). And they were able to remove Viktor Yanukovych from office.

Many other countries escaped from Russian influance thanks to mass demonstration (Poland, East Germany, ex USSR nations).

It is not easy, but there is not other way. Only Russian can dethrone Putin, no one else.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euromaidan

Yanukovich had far less support and had opposition. Ukraine's military presence was a fraction of Russia's. Already more Russians have been arrested in protests so far this week than in Maidan, but unless millions rise up it's impossible to remove Putin. When you shoot at a king and you miss you only solidify his position.

Furthermore Maidan had assistance from the US. No such thing exists in Russia.

There are only so many jails, temporary detention facilities, and judges to give the verdicts.

Tell that to Stalin

In his times there were no easy ways to organize masses of people due to lack of efficient decentralized means of communication.

Social media is mostly banned. Posting anything online against the war is a 15 year jail sentence.

You have a solution to this problem 2 posts up in the chain.