[FlamesAddiction]

I think the majority of Russians are just completely defeated at this point. The state has succeeded in its goal to remove the public from participation. It is one of the reasons why the existence of Ukraine is a threat. Ukraine, while not being a perfect democracy, was making strides in the right direction for things that measure freedom and public control. It was setting an example to the Russian people that it was possible to go in a different direction, and I think that scares Putin and others in high positions of power. They could no longer argue that totalitarian control was ingrained and necessary by historical circumstance when their sibling nation with a shared history was proving otherwise.

It's difficult to activate people once they defeated in the minds. I can't recall if it was here or somewhere else, but I watched a video with a young Russian who recently emigrated to Georgia and he grew up thinking that "Putin" was the same word for "president". He talked about how the concept of choice was something foreign to him and a lot of people. You just trust the leaders because that is all you know.