the fact that ordinary russians mostly support invasion we know here for the fact. many here have relatives in russia, and just ask any ukrainian about conversations with relatives in russia. and these conversations are private, it is not like putin forced "poor russians" to support war.
https://navigatingrussia.substack.com/p/russias-hidden-war-debt
Really interesting analysis that has been overlooked. tl;dr: someone carefully looked through corporate records, and found that hundreds of billions of dollars of sketchy loans have been given to Russian defense contractors that probably can't pay them back. These aren't voluntary loans: the Russian government passed a law in 2022 forcing banks to loan money at low rates to defense contractors.
Previously it's been generally thought that about 15% of Russia's true GDP is being spent on the invasion. Taking forced loans into account, it's quite possible the real number is double that.
Yet more evidence that "ordinary Russians" are ultimately responsible for the invasion. You simply can't have this much % of GDP involved in a war without every working Russian making a significant contribution.
Western countries donating weapons to Ukraine should allow them to be used on any military or economic target in Ukraine. Destruction of the Russian electricity grid would be a good priority along with oil and gas.
Discussion
Exactly what I've been told too. Peoples' friends and family either have already left Russia. Or, quite often, they're no longer talking to them because they support the invasion.
Of course, a lot of Russians have left, as least among the wealthier class.