The answer depends on whether or not you are on the receiving end (perhaps as part of an unfortunate "collateral" line in someone's XLS spreadsheet).
The crime and punishment issues are mostly solved for individuals and small groups. There is a good reason why in most societies the victim is not the one who decides the fate of the attacker — it is the job of the law. Sadly, this doesn't work at international scale. That is when large scale punitive operations take place. And then the other side responds with more violence.
In the end of this feedback loop we reach the point where 99% of the ones who suffer are collateral damage — from all sides. Is it inevitable? It seems so. No matter what happens next, someone has to pay, right?
Please remember that even according to the official polls, at least 28,000,000 (20%) of Russian citizens do not support the war.
I feel the need to repeat this in every message: I am a Russian national, living outside of Russia, I do not pay taxes in Russia. I am strongly against war (this or any other). The war is causing massive death and destruction to the country where half of my friends come from, and indirectly to my own country. Regardless of that, I am ready to accept any hate coming towards me due to my place of birth.
Having said that, I am in the position to understand where people are coming from. My late great-grandfather hated not only the Nazis, but all Germans because of what they leaders did to his people. Decades after the war, he still wanted all Germans to die. I couldn't blame him, nor can I blame the rest of the world today.
This really hurts. I left Russia a while ago, have not paid taxes there since then, and otherwise have no connection to the country, but I still feel like everyone hates me because of my passport and my language. It seems we truly are the new Germans as they were around 1940s.
None of it matters right now. The current goal is to stop the war at any cost, and people are just trying to do something. I suggest we have a discussion about what we can do to help despite the (indiscriminate) pressure.
Context: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30632695 (Facebook/Meta made some questionable moderation policy changes, the government decided to block Instagram, people are unhappy).
This is not entirely accurate. European countries pay billions of dollars for gas directly to the state. If they stopped immediately, the damage would be far greater than anything coming from the ordinary citizens.
It is true that the idea of suffering have been engraved into the Russian culture, for centuries. It is the ever-present fear of what could happen next, based on what has happened in the past. The fear of things getting even worse, despite everything being bad already. The longing for a chance to have even a short period of normal life, before everything inevitably falls apart (because it always does, roughly twice per century). The idea of accepting the current reality as something immutable and just trying to live with it. The idea of personal (rather than collective) survival. Of course in these circumstances you rarely have the luxury to think about what is right.
Now, that is exactly what state media has learned to exploit. They were selling the idea that nothing _too_ bad will happen if everyone just stays away from politics. Well, now the worst happened. It has been only a few days, and not many people have realized what is coming next. A collapse of economy at this scale will inevitably lead to a massive increase of hunger, crime and death. And — I am not even sure it can change those people's collective behavior.
Personally, I am trying to do my part, but I do not believe my work is going to be of any significance. Maybe it's the "soul".
The crime and punishment issues are mostly solved for individuals and small groups. There is a good reason why in most societies the victim is not the one who decides the fate of the attacker — it is the job of the law. Sadly, this doesn't work at international scale. That is when large scale punitive operations take place. And then the other side responds with more violence.
In the end of this feedback loop we reach the point where 99% of the ones who suffer are collateral damage — from all sides. Is it inevitable? It seems so. No matter what happens next, someone has to pay, right?