Ukraine

I am not arguing against this initiative and to be honest I support it even though I don't believe in it. I am just sharing my own perspective and it's not meant to be a critique of this post (even if it comes off that way). FWIW, I upvoted this post after reading the linked page.

I don't believe there is any point in engaging with russians (be it yelling at them or any kind of dialogue revolving around what I see as platitudes). This is not because they are inherently bad or incapable of change or anything like that. They are very much capable of change, not to mention that framing their behaviour in essentialist terms in many ways allows them to avoid responsibility.

Based on the facts on the ground, the lack of information is not relevant when discussing broad support for genocidal imperialism among russians. They are adults, they full well understand that invading another country, annexing their territories and enforcing their language and culture is wrong. The stuff about "nazis in Ukraine" and NATO/BATO expansion is all a ruse and the russians who promote such polemics know this.

For someone to change their mind, there has to be some sort of driver or incentive. Ethical and humanist arguments cannot change minds when a strong majority (at the very least) of the population explicitly endorses and supports a genocidal imperialist position (while also engaging in duplicitous messaging in order to whitewash their crimes in context of the world at large).

One has to be honest with russians and explicitly tell them their ruse is not going to work. That they will be treated as genocidal imperialists until they change their behaviour (end of occupation, extradition of all russians involved in war crimes, compensation for all killings and damage). Tell them that they are welcome to play the victim, lie about russophobia or support putin or do whatever; they will be treated based on their actions. If you do evil things, you will be treated as evil people, no one is buying your lies.

Now you might say this approach is unreasonable, unrealistic or lacking in pragmatism. To that I will answer; look at it from a more long term perspective. Over the last 110 years, 16 nations have de jure liberated themselves from the yoke of russian imperialism (I am not even counting Warsaw Pact countries). Reagan took an explicit position (evil empire) and lo and behold, the USSR did collapse.

I simply don't believe the vast majority of russians have any interest in changing their views (based on ethical arguments). They know what they are doing is wrong and they still support it. They need real incentives to change their tune.

Regarding the BBC article, I will point out that the Nazi regime was defeated by military force. Denazification was implemented via multi-decade allied occupation aimed at limiting any hint of revanchism both via positive initiatives such as the marshal plan and long term education initiatives. Unfortunately, this is not viable when it comes to russians.

Like I said earlier, this just my opinion and I do think it's a well meaning initiative. I would be glad to be wrong regarding the above-mentioned arguments.