Letters: Who’s responsible for Putin’s rise if not Russians?

Russian misrule

Sir: Your editorial (‘Sanction Schroder’, 21 May) laments that western sanctions may be harming ordinary Russians, given that they too ‘are victims of Vladimir Putin’s corruption and misrule’. Yet who if not the Russian people themselves are more culpable for the rise of Putin? The unpalatable fact that both he and his assault on Ukraine still enjoy such considerable popular domestic support cannot be put down merely to his iron grip on the levers of coercion and propaganda. For most of the last century the Russian people have allowed themselves to be misruled and oppressed by a succession of malevolent tyrants and despots. There comes a point when the people of a country have to take responsibility for their leaders. There are clearly many thousands of brave Russian dissenters and opponents of Putin’s regime, but not nearly enough. Meanwhile, the evidence suggests that the majority of ordinary Russians aren’t being frightened out of rising up against the regime, it’s just that they can see no good reason to do so, or else are turning a blind eye to its atrocities.