bastion
Sovereignty is the deeper moral right. It is any sovereign individual or group’s right to accept or reject an authority they choose to, and they must deal with the consequences of that (often implicit) choice.
A sovereign entity who is by choice or otherwise subject to a malign power will become a channel for that malign power, regardless of whether or not they intend to. And even when there is no malign intent, there can be fundamental disagreements between sovereign states.
It is very possible the individuals don’t support Russia. But aside from aiding and supporting defection, there’s not much we can do until Russia demonstrates a will to relinquish a hold on Ukraine, who has clearly demonstrated their sovereignty.
There are points of power (like code run all over the world) that are desirable targets for malicious actors.
So, those who are subject to a malicious foreign power, whether they are innocent or not, because they are subject to a power that is not innocent.
We don’t need to attack those people, but we need to deny the Russian state the capacity to affect those points of power where we can. They claim Russian citizenry, and so they are impacted by Russia’s choices, and the international responses to Russia’s actions.
There will always be something to pick at, and with the number of trolls on here to inflame and manipulate any legitimate concerns, i highly suspect the troll farms and related pawns would find something to bitch about.
The fact is, not everyone has the EQ to state the issue perfectly clearly in terms everyone can accept.
“No, do you really expect me to look past what Russia is doing? Absolutely fucking no,” is basically reasonable.
I mean, do you? This is a violation by Russia of another sovereign state. Thus, everyone in Russia is affected by the consequences of that action.
The Russian kernel coders, no matter their innocence, are subjects of a nation that can compel them to misbehave.
Now, if they were leaving Russia and defecting, that’s another matter, where they are pulling their individual sovereignty away from the Russian state.