The visa thing might be more about tourists, a lot of whom have been showing they don't belong in civilised society with their behaviour. And most Russians wouldn't be able to afford to go anyway.
And it's also a matter of timing - you would normally get on the Russian government's kill list inside Russia, and then try to leave Russia to seek asylum elsewhere.
I can see that such a plan back-fires, and I doubt that you can hope to get the treatment of Solzhenitzyn (or however you transcribe his name nowadays) and be expelled from Russia.
One of the reasons I am against this whole Visa ban is again it acts as if the Russian person who is essentially living somewhere in Russia that has done nothing to Ukraine is somehow personally as guilty as the person from Russia in Ukraine that's doing war crimes. When a person's crime begins and ends with that person. Secondly, the way the west won the cold war (well one of the reasons) was actually allowing people from the other side of the iron curtain actually see how the west truly is. Filled stores, free speech etc and those that saw it told their friends and it basically brought out the protests because people in the East demanded the standard of living the west had.
Thirdly it might drive people even more into Putin circles. Before everyone goes "look at the polling in Russia." those polls are Russian propaganda in of itself. Especially when they refuse to push out the refuses to answer group (aka the people that are anti Putin but don't want to be dead. Which you know doing everything it takes to be alive is the goal of every sane and rational lifeform)
Unless you hold the weapon you're not a murderer. Sorry but civilians are not responsible for a military or a government even in fucking democracies. In a Dictatorship they have even less responsibility.
Every human (and until genetics change Russians are human) are responsible for three people (unless they are a parent) They, themselves and there own bodies. If someone I know goes and kills someone I didn't do it I am not responsible.
Nonsense. The people are responsible for their governments, whether they chose them or not. They have the power, if they're too afraid or too comfortable to do anything they are complicit all the same. Weakness, cowardice or stupidity are no excuse.
When your government does something awful and evil and you do not attempt to stop it, you and everyone in your family are guilty. Evil is enabled by good people who do nothing. That is why when American forces liberated concentration camps they forced the populations of nearby towns to see the corpses of the people their government murdered while they stood by and pretended to know nothing.
So yes, in no uncertain terms, all Russians are guilty. Except those who actually do something to stop their nefarious government.
Last edited by enigma77; 2022-08-12 at 05:20 PM.
Seeking asylum in the rest of Europe is always an option for Russians that are at serious risk of persecution inside of Russia, having straight up vacations in the rest of Europe is a luxury they do not deserve so long as their political apathy enables the Russian state to carry on like this.