What is the evidence Russians don’t support Putin’s war in Ukraine? From what I gather the voices of opposition to Putin inside Russia consist mainly of folk who think Putin isn’t being hard enough or should have acted earlier to prevent NATO expansion and western control of Ukraine. If Putin is removed, there is every possibility he would be replaced by somebody more hawkish and less stable than he is.
One point I think illustrates just how skewed western perception of Russian public opinion involves the fact that Alexei Navalny was held up in the west as a good democratic alternative to Putin. Yet even Navalny supported Russian annexation of Crimea and would never give it back to Ukraine. He was a right wing nationalist who opposed Putin mainly on corruption grounds. That’s how far Russian opinion is away from western understanding of it - even the guy they turned into a hero fully supported Russia keeping Crimea. How is that compatible with western demands or how is that significantly better than Putin from a western viewpoint? It was never explained, because it doesn’t make any sense. The goal of the US was to weaken Russia and they’ll use any tool at their disposal including lionising so called dissidents who actually agree with Putin or in some cases are even more hard line than he is.